Flight-to-quality and asymmetric volatility responses in US Treasuries

Flight-to-quality during times of financial crisis is a feature of financial markets. Here, a simple strategic model demonstrates that some preference asymmetry is sufficient to generate endogenous flight-to-quality from an emerging stock market to US Treasury bonds. The empirical evidence from a TARCH model supports the significance of emerging equity market shocks in accounting for the asymmetric properties of US Treasuries across the maturity structure. This effect is found to be more pronounced since the turn of the 21st century.