What Makes US Government Bonds Safe Assets? / Zhiguo He, Arvind Krishnamurthy, Konstantin Milbradt.

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He, Zhiguo

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Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w22017.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

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Abstract: US government bonds are widely considered to be the world's safe store of value. US government bonds are a large fraction of safe asset portfolios, such as the porfolios of many central banks. The world demand for safe assets leads to low yields on US Treasury bonds. During periods of economic turmoil, such as the events of 2008, these yields fall even further. Moreover, despite the fact that US government debt has risen substantially relative to US GDP over the last decade, US government bond yields have not risen. What makes US government bonds "safe assets"? Our answer in short is that safe asset investors have nowhere else to go but invest in US government bonds.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w22017 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

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February 2016.

US government bonds are widely considered to be the world's safe store of value. US government bonds are a large fraction of safe asset portfolios, such as the porfolios of many central banks. The world demand for safe assets leads to low yields on US Treasury bonds. During periods of economic turmoil, such as the events of 2008, these yields fall even further. Moreover, despite the fact that US government debt has risen substantially relative to US GDP over the last decade, US government bond yields have not risen. What makes US government bonds "safe assets"? Our answer in short is that safe asset investors have nowhere else to go but invest in US government bonds.