Abstract:
Using exchange rates futures instead of forwards completes the maturity spectrum of the correlation between the spot return and the premium. The correlation decreases with increasing maturity, presumably due to a latent risk premium. We hypothesize that the influence of the unobserved risk factor has a contract-specific risk component. Our main contribution is to control for the omitted variable bias by using a modified version of the CCE panel estimator in combination with futures data. This renders the coefficient on the futures premium insignificantly different from one. Subsequently, the contract-specific part is related to conventional proxies of risk.