Fitting and forecasting yield curves with a mixed-frequency affine model: Evidence from China

Abstract This paper proposes a novel mixed-frequency affine term structure model to improving the fit and forecasting ability of yield curves. We also show the Bayesian estimation method related to this mixed-frequency model. Then we conduct an empirical study using Chinese macro and financial data. The empirical results show that compared with the traditional same-frequency affine model, the mixed-frequency affine model offers superior performance for fitting the yield curve and term structure factors. Specifically, this mixed-frequency affine model can provide more accurate out-of-sample forecast results of the yield curve.