The natural rate of interest -- the real interest rate consistent with output equaling potential -- plays an important role in both economic forecasting and monetary policy. Much of the literature has assumed that the natural rate of interest is constant. For example, the Taylor rule includes a...

Finance models of the term structure of interest rates have for a long time relied on unobserved factors as explanatory variables. In a seminal paper, Ang and Piazzesi (2003) have examined the potential role of macroeconomic variables in explaining the term structure. They, and subsequent...