<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Understanding the relationship between interest rates and term to maturity of securities is a prerequisite for developing financial theory and evaluating whether it holds up in the real world; therefore, such an understanding lies at the heart of monetary and financial economics. Accurately fitting the term structure of interest rates is the backbone of a smoothly functioning financial market, which is why the testing of various models for estimating and predicting the term structure of interest rates is an important topic in finance that has received considerable attention for many decades. In this paper, we empirically contrast the performance of cubic splines and the Nelson-Siegel model by estimating the zero-coupon yields of Austrian government bonds. The main conclusion that can be drawn from the results of the calculations is that the Nelson-Siegel model outperforms cubic splines at the short end of the yield curve (up to 2 years), whereas for medium-term maturities (2 to 10 years) the fitting performance of both models is comparable.</p></abstract>

Understanding the relationship between interest rates and term to maturity of securities is a prerequisite for developing financial theory and evaluating whether it holds up in the real world; therefore, such an understanding lies at the heart of monetary and financial economics. Accurately fitting the term structure of interest rates is the backbone of a smoothly functioning financial market, which is why the testing of various models for estimating and predicting the term structure of interest rates is an important topic in finance that has received considerable attention for many decades. In this paper, we empirically contrast the performance of cubic splines and the Nelson-Siegel model by estimating the zero-coupon yields of Austrian government bonds. The main conclusion that can be drawn from the results of the calculations is that the Nelson-Siegel model outperforms cubic splines at the short end of the yield curve (up to 2 years), whereas for medium-term maturities (2 to 10 years) the fitting performance of both models is comparable.

Testing the Performance of Cubic Splines and Nelson-Siegel Model for Estimating the Zero-coupon Yield Curve

Ranca 35, 2211 Pesnica pri Mariboru, Slovenia

Naše gospodarstvo/Our economy

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Understanding the relationship between interest rates and term to maturity of securities is a prerequisite for developing financial theory and evaluating...

Testing the Performance of Cubic Splines and Nelson-Siegel Model for Estimating the Zero-coupon Yield Curve

Published Online: Jun 24, 2016

Page range: 42 - 50

Received: Dec 01, 2015

Accepted: Mar 01, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ngoe-2016-0011

Keywords
Cubic splines, Nelson-Siegel, yield curve, zero-coupon bonds, term structure of interest rates

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Testing the Performance of Cubic Splines and Nelson-Siegel Model for Estimating the Zero-coupon Yield Curve

Published Online: Jun 24, 2016

Page range: 42 - 50

Received: Dec 01, 2015

Accepted: Mar 01, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ngoe-2016-0011

KeywordsCubic splines, Nelson-Siegel, yield curve, zero-coupon bonds, term structure of interest rates

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Cubic splines, Nelson-Siegel, yield curve, zero-coupon bonds, term structure of interest rates