This is “The Economics of Interest-Rate Spreads and Yield Curves”, chapter 6 from the book Finance, Banking, and Money (v. 1.0). For details on it (including licensing), click here.

For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page. You can browse or download additional books there. You may also download a PDF copy of this book (8 MB) or just this chapter (475 KB), suitable for printing or most e-readers, or a .zip file containing this book's HTML files (for use in a web browser offline).

Has this book helped you? Consider passing it on:
Creative Commons supports free culture from music to education. Their licenses helped make this book available to you.
DonorsChoose.org helps people like you help teachers fund their classroom projects, from art supplies to books to calculators.

Chapter 6 The Economics of Interest-Rate Spreads and Yield Curves

Chapter Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

  1. Define the risk structure of interest rates and explain its importance.
  2. Explain the term flight to quality.
  3. Define the term structure of interest rates and explain its importance.
  4. Describe a yield curve and explain its economic meaning.