Term structure of interest rate. european financial integration.

In this paper we estimate, analyze and compare the term structures of interest rate in six different countries, during the period 1992-2004. We apply Nelson and Siegel model to obtain them with a weekly frequency. Four European Monetary Union countries, Spain, France, Germany and Italy are included. UK is also included as a European country, but not integrated in the Monetary Union. Finally US completes the analysis. The goal is to determine the differences in the shape of curves between these countries. Likewise, we can determinate the most usual term structure shapes that appear in every country.