Working Papers

2015-01 | May 2016

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Resolving the Spanning Puzzle in Macro-Finance Term Structure Models

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Most existing macro-finance term structure models (MTSMs) appear incompatible with regression evidence of unspanned macro risk. This “spanning puzzle” appears to invalidate those models in favor of new unspanned MTSMs. However, our empirical analysis supports the previous spanned models. Using simulations to investigate the spanning implications of MTSMs, we show that a canonical spanned model is consistent with the regression evidence; thus, we resolve the spanning puzzle. In addition, direct likelihood-ratio tests find that the knife-edge restrictions of unspanned models are rejected with high statistical significance, though these restrictions have only small effects on cross-sectional fit and estimated term premia.

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Article Citation

Bauer, Michael D, and Glenn D. Rudebusch. 2015. "Resolving the Spanning Puzzle in Macro-Finance Term Structure Models," Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper 2015-01. Available at https://doi.org/10.24148/wp2015-01