Chapter 4

Understanding
Interest Rates
 Measuring Interest Rates

• Present Value:
• A dollar paid to you one year from now is
less valuable than a dollar paid to you
today
• Why?
– A dollar deposited today can earn interest and
become $1 x (1+i) one year from today.

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 Discounting the Future

Let i = .10
In one year $100 X (1+ 0.10) = $110
In two years $110 X (1 + 0.10) = $121
2
or 100 X (1 + 0.10)
In three years $121 X (1 + 0.10) = $133
3
or 100 X (1 + 0.10)
In n years
n
$100 X (1 + i )

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 Simple Present Value

PV = today's (present) value

CF = future cash flow (payment)
i = the interest rate
CF
PV =
(1 + i ) n

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 Time Line

•Cannot directly compare payments scheduled in different points in the

time line

$100 $100 $100 $100

Year 0 1 2 n

PV 100 100/(1+i) 100/(1+i)2 100/(1+i)n

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 Four Types of Credit Market
Instruments

• Simple Loan
• Fixed Payment Loan
• Coupon Bond
• Discount Bond

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 Yield to Maturity

• The interest rate that equates the

present value of cash flow payments
received from a debt instrument with
its value today

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 Simple Loan

PV = amount borrowed = $100

CF = cash flow in one year = $110
n = number of years = 1
$110
$100 =
(1 + i )1
(1 + i ) $100 = $110
$110
(1 + i ) =
$100
i = 0.10 = 10%
For simple loans, the simple interest rate equals the
yield to maturity

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 Fixed Payment Loan

The same cash flow payment every period throughout

the life of the loan
LV = loan value
FP = fixed yearly payment
n = number of years until maturity
FP FP FP FP
LV =  2
 3
 ...+
1 + i (1 + i ) (1 + i ) (1 + i ) n

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 Coupon Bond

Using the same strategy used for the fixed-payment loan:

P = price of coupon bond
C = yearly coupon payment
F = face value of the bond
n = years to maturity date
C C C C F
P=  2
 3
. . . + 
1+i (1+i ) (1+i ) (1+i ) (1+i ) n
n

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 Table 1 Yields to Maturity on a 10%-
Coupon-Rate Bond Maturing in Ten Years
(Face Value = $1,000)

• When the coupon bond is priced at its face value, the

yield to maturity equals the coupon rate
• The price of a coupon bond and the yield to maturity are
negatively related
• The yield to maturity is greater than the coupon rate
when the bond price is below its face value

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 Consol or Perpetuity

• A bond with no maturity date that does not repay

principal but pays fixed coupon payments forever

P  C / ic
Pc  price of the consol
C  yearly interest payment
ic  yield to maturity of the consol

can rewrite above equation as this : ic  C / Pc

For coupon bonds, this equation gives the current yield, an
easy to calculate approximation to the yield to maturity

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 Discount Bond

For any one year discount bond

F-P
i=
P
F = Face value of the discount bond
P = current price of the discount bond
The yield to maturity equals the increase
in price over the year divided by the initial price.
As with a coupon bond, the yield to maturity is
negatively related to the current bond price.

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 The Distinction Between Interest
Rates and Returns

• Rate of The payments to the owner plus the change in value

Return: expressed as a fraction of the purchase price
C P -P
RET = + t1 t
Pt Pt
RET = return from holding the bond from time t to time t + 1
Pt = price of bond at time t
Pt1 = price of the bond at time t + 1
C = coupon payment
C
= current yield = ic
Pt
Pt1 - Pt
= rate of capital gain = g
Pt

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 The Distinction Between Interest
Rates and Returns (cont’d)

• The return equals the yield to maturity only if the

holding period equals the time to maturity
• A rise in interest rates is associated with a fall in
bond prices, resulting in a capital loss if time to
maturity is longer than the holding period
• The more distant a bond’s maturity, the greater the
size of the percentage price change associated with
an interest-rate change

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 The Distinction Between Interest
Rates and Returns (cont’d)

• The more distant a bond’s maturity, the lower the

rate of return the occurs as a result of an increase
in the interest rate
• Even if a bond has a substantial initial interest
rate, its return can be negative if interest rates
rise

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 Table 2 One-Year Returns on Different-
Maturity 10%-Coupon-Rate Bonds When
Interest Rates Rise from 10% to 20%

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 Interest-Rate Risk

• Prices and returns for long-term bonds are

more volatile than those for shorter-term
bonds
• There is no interest-rate risk for any bond
whose time to maturity matches the holding
period

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 The Distinction Between Real and
Nominal Interest Rates

• Nominal interest rate makes no

allowance for inflation
• Real interest rate is adjusted for changes
in price level so it more accurately reflects
the cost of borrowing
• Ex ante real interest rate is adjusted for
expected changes in the price level
• Ex post real interest rate is adjusted for
actual changes in the price level

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 Fisher Equation

i  ir   e
i = nominal interest rate
ir = real interest rate
 e = expected inflation rate
When the real interest rate is low,
there are greater incentives to borrow and fewer incentives to lend.
The real interest rate is a better indicator of the incentives to
borrow and lend.

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 Figure 1 Real and Nominal Interest Rates
(Three-Month Treasury Bill), 1953–2011

Sources: Nominal rates from [Link]/releases/H15 and inflation from

[Link] The real rate is constructed using the procedure outlined in Frederic S.
Mishkin, “The Real Interest Rate: An Empirical Investigation,” Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 15
(1981): 151–200. This procedure involves estimating expected inflation as a function of past interest rates, inflation, and
time trends and then subtracting the expected inflation measure from the nominal interest rate.

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