Authors:

  • Adi Sunderam
  • Emil Siriwardane

Excerpt

March 2018, Paper: "We document a strong and robust positive relationship between the one-year real rate and the contemporaneous valuation of volatile stocks, which we contend measures the economy’s risk appetite. Our novel proxy for risk appetite explains 41% of the variation in the real rate since 1970, while the valuation of the aggregate stock market explains just 1%. In addition, the real rate forecasts returns on volatile stocks, confirming our interpretation that changes in risk appetite drive the real rate. Increases in our measure of risk appetite are followed by a boom in investment and output."

Harvard authors' websites (non-HKS): Emil Siriwardane, Adi Sunderam