December 2023
Article
Journal of Financial Economics

Intermediary Balance Sheets and the Treasury Yield Curve

By: Wenxin Du, Benjamin Hebert and Wenhao Li

Format:Electronic
| Pages:19

Abstract

We document a regime change in the Treasury market post-Global Financial Crisis (GFC): dealers switched from net short to net long Treasury bonds. We construct “net-long” and “net-short” curves that account for balance sheet and financing costs, and show that actual yields moved from the net short curve pre-GFC to the net long curve post-GFC. Our theory shows the regime shift caused negative swap spreads and co-movement among swap spreads, dealer positions, and covered-interest-parity violations. Furthermore, the effects of various monetary and regulatory policies are regime-dependent. We highlight Treasury supply as a plausible driver of this regime shift.

Keywords

Bonds; Financial Markets; Financial Crisis; Asset Pricing

Citation

Du, Wenxin, Benjamin Hebert, and Wenhao Li. "Intermediary Balance Sheets and the Treasury Yield Curve." Art. 103722. Journal of Financial Economics 150, no. 3 (December 2023).