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Over the past couple of decades, and especially since the financial crisis in 2008-09, real interest rates have collapsed. For much of the past two years they have been negative, but they have been trending down for some while. But how far have real rates fallen? This note computes a measure of the "world" real interest rate and, where possible, a measure of the implied future real rate. It also makes public our estimates of the "world" real interest rate so they can be used by other researchers.
This paper examines the extent to which a dynamic international general equilibrium model can account for observed movements in real interest rates and interest rate differentials. Using data for Group of Seven, the study finds that measured real interest rates are countercyclical in a single country and that the contemporaneous cross-correlations between international real interest differentials and output growth spreads are negative. Predictions of the baseline model are, however, inconsistent with the data. Extending the benchmark model to include habit persistence in consumption improves the match between theory and data.
The paper finds significant deviations between short-term emerging market real interest rates and world real interest rates primarily due to the inflationary expectations of the local investor base. We test for long-run real interest convergence in emerging markets using a time varying panel unit root test proposed by Pesaran to capture the improved macro-economic fundamentals since early 1990s. We also estimate the speed of convergence in the presence of a shock. The paper suggests that real interest rates in the emerging markets show some convergence in the long run but real interest parity does not hold. Our results also find that the speed of adjustment of real rates to a shock is estimated to differ significantly across the emerging markets. Measured by their half-life, some emerging markets in Asia, E.Europe and S.Africa, where real interest rates are generally low, take much longer to adjust than where real interest rates are generally high (Latin America, Turkey). From a policy perspective, encouraging foreign investors to take direct exposure at the short end of the local debt market could lower the real interest rates in some emerging markets.
This paper characterises the world real interest rate as a common trend in real interest rates in Germany, Japan, and the United States even if there is scepticism in the existence of the world real interest. In theoretical terms, real interest parity is based on the presumed validity of uncovered interest parity and purchasing power parity, but the empirical evidence of these parity conditions is not strong and thus the presence of the world real interest rate. The significance of this paper is, therefore, to visualise the current level of international economic integration by characterising the approximate world real interest rate as a single common trend, taking full advantage of the fact that real interest rates in three large open economies have been moving together sharing a common component even if their levels are distinctively different. This single common trend has desirable properties as the world real interest rate. First, it is a parsimonious and monotonically increasing function of the real interest rates in three large open economies that can be world price or interest rate maker, in contrast with small open economies. Second, it is moving together with national real interest rates one for one. Hence, the deviations from the world rate are temporary because common trend represents the common driving force of national rates over the long run period. Third, it can explain as high a proportion as possible of the variances of national rates.
The conventional wisdom says yes. But close examination suggests the answer is not nearly so clear-cut.
A comparison, during Sept. 1977-Dec. 1992, of interest rates in the United States and 8 other OECD countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Cf. p. 2.
This paper looks at the dramatic decline in global real interest rates in recent years from a historical perspective and examines the various factors that may account for this trend. We show that current levels of real interest rates on long-term bonds in advanced economies are not low by historical standards and that it is the real long bond rates of the early 1980s through much of the 1990s that look anomalous. We also find that current global long-term interest rates are roughly in line with what one would predict given current price-earnings (P/E) ratios and under reasonable assumptions about the equity risk premia and the expected rate of growth of earnings in advanced countries. Finally, we provide econometric evidence that global long-term interest rates are significantly affected by commodity prices, expected productivity growth, and fiscal consolidation in advanced countries.
The equilibrium real interest rate represents the real rate of return required to keep the economy's output equal to potential output. This article discusses how to measure the equilibrium real interest rate, using an empirical structural model of the economy.
"This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions"--T.p. verso.
This paper sheds light on a narrow but crucial question in finance: What should be the parameters of a model of the short-term real interest rate? Although models for the nominal interest rate are well studied and estimated, dynamics of the real interest rate are rarely explored. Simple ad hoc processes for the short-term real interest rate are usually assumed as building blocks for more sophisticated models. In this paper, parameters of the real interest rate model are estimated in the broad class of single-factor interest rate diffusion processes on U.S. monthly data. It is shown that the elasticity of interest rate volatility—the relationship between the volatility of changes in the interest rate and its level—plays a crucial role in explaining real interest rate dynamics. The empirical estimates of the elasticity of the real interest rate volatility are found to be about 0.5, much lower than that of the nominal interest rate. These estimates show that the square root process, as in the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model, provides a good characterization of the short-term real interest rate process.