We study the filter in Ma and Tang (2012) and show that the filter has predictive power for sunspot cycles. The filter is a 12-month simple moving average of the sum of one month, three month and six month differences of the logarithm monthly sunspot number series. We show that this filter leads...

We generalize the arbitrage-free Nelson Siegel (AFNS) model to allow λt to vary over time. We find that the time-varying λt, which determines the relative factor loadings, typically reaches its local peak before starting to decline right before a recession. Through conducting extensive...