FEDS Paper: The Causal Effect of Debt on Interest Rates
Abhik Bhatt, Anthony M. Diercks, Benjamin Eyal, and Arsenios SkaperdasThis paper uses a natural experiment to measure the causal effect of an expected debt-financed fiscal stimulus on interest rates. We find that a 1 percentage point increase in the expected US debt-to-GDP ratio leads to an increase of about 1-2 basis points in the longer-run neutral rate (r∗) and of about 2–3 basis points in the 10-year Treasury term premium.