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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Time Value of Money
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
or 100 X (1 + 0.10)3
In n years
$100 X (1 + i ) n
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Discounting the Future - 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
• Price of the asset = sum of the present
value of the future cash flows
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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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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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Fixed Payment Loan (Annuity)
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
+ ...+ n
1 + i (1 + i) (1 + i ) (1 + i)
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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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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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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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Table 2 One-Year Returns on Different-
Maturity 10%-Coupon-Rate Bonds When
Interest Rates Rise from 10% to 20%
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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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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 + p e
i = nominal interest rate
ir = real interest rate
p 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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