The notion of model-free implied volatility (MFIV), constituting the basis for the highly publicized VIX volatility index, can be hard to measure with accuracy due to the lack of precise prices for options with strikes in the tails of the return distribution. This is reflected in practice as the...

We propose a new test for the parametric form of the volatility function in continuous time diffusion models of the type dXt = a(t,Xt)dt + s(t,Xt)dWt. Our approach involves a range-based estimation of the integrated volatility and the integrated quarticity, which are used to construct the test...

In this paper a two-component volatility model based on the component's first moment is introduced to describe the dynamic of speculative return volatility. The two components capture the volatile and persistent part of volatility respectively. Then the model is applied to 10 Asia-Pacific stock...

In the present paper we suggest to model Realized Volatility, an estimate of daily volatility based on high frequency data, as an Inverse Gaussian distributed variable with time varying mean, and we examine the joint properties of Realized Volatility and asset returns. We derive the appropriate...

Recent work by Engle and Lee (1999) shows that allowing for long-run and short-run components greatly enhances a GARCH model’s ability fit daily equity return dynamics. Using the risk-neutralization in Duan (1995), we assess the option valuation performance of the Engle-Lee model and compare...

In this paper, we propose new tests for long memory in stationary and nonstationary time series possibly perturbed by short-run noise which may be serially correlated. The tests are all based on semiparametric estimators and exploit the self-similarity property of long memory processes. We o¤er...

The Pearson diffusions is a flexible class of diffusions defined by having linear drift and quadratic squared diffusion coefficient. It is demonstrated that for this class explicit statistical inference is feasible. Explicit optimal martingale estimating func- tions are found, and the...

Many key macro-economic and financial variables are characterised by permanent changes in unconditional volatility. In this paper we analyse vector autoregressions with non-stationary (unconditional) volatility of a very general form, which includes single and multiple volatility breaks as...

Recent research has focused on modelling asset prices by Itô semimartingales. In such a modelling framework, the quadratic variation consists of a continuous and a jump component. This paper is about inference on the jump part of the quadratic variation, which can be estimated by the difference...

This paper presents some limit theorems for certain functionals of moving averages of semimartingales plus noise, which are observed at high frequency. Our method generalizes the pre-averaging approach (see [13],[11]) and provides consistent estimates for various characteristics of general...