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Forecasting the LIBOR‐Federal Funds Rate Spread During and After the Financial Crisis
Author(s) -
Dbouk Wassim,
Jamali Ibrahim,
Kryzanowski Lawrence
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of futures markets
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.88
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1096-9934
pISSN - 0270-7314
DOI - 10.1002/fut.21737
Subject(s) - libor , predictability , futures contract , economics , financial crisis , financial economics , econometrics , futures market , federal funds , econometric model , financial market , interest rate , monetary economics , finance , macroeconomics , monetary policy , statistics , mathematics
In this paper, we examine the point and density forecast accuracy of econometric models, surveys and futures rates in predicting the LIBOR‐Federal Funds Rate (LIBOR‐FF) spread during and after the financial crisis. We provide evidence that the futures market forecast outperforms all competing forecasts during and after the financial crisis and that its predictive density is well calibrated. Our results also suggest that the predictive accuracy of the econometric models improves in the post‐crisis period. We argue that the post‐2009 improvement in the econometric models' forecasts is attributable to the absence of LIBOR manipulation. The economic significance of the uncovered predictability is assessed using a trading strategy. Our results suggest that trading based on the futures market and econometric forecasts generates positive risk‐adjusted returns. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 36:345–374, 2016