This paper proposes a discrete-state stochastic volatility model with duration-dependent mixing. The latter is directed by a high-order Markov chain with a sparse transition matrix. As in the standard first-order Markov-switching (MS)model, this structure can capture turning points and shifts in...

Constructed from high-frequency data, realized volatility (RV) provides an accurate estimate of the unobserved volatility of financial markets. This paper uses a Bayesian approach to investigate the evidence for structural breaks in reduced form time-series models of RV. We focus on the popular...

Many finance questions require a full characterization of the distribution of returns. We propose a bivariate model of returns and realized volatility (RV), and explore which features of that time-series model contribute to superior density forecasts over horizons of 1 to 60 days out of sample....

We develops a new conditional jump model to study jump dynamics in stock market returns. We propose a simple filter to infer ex post the distribution of jumps. This permits construction of the shock affecting the time t conditional jump intensity, and is the main input into an autoregressive...

This paper models different components of the return distribution which are assumed to be directed by a latent news process. The conditional variance of returns is a combination of jumps and smoothly changing components. This mixture captures occasional large changes in price, due to the impact...

This paper shows that oil shocks primarily impact economic growth through the conditional variance of growth. Our comparison of models focuses on density forecasts. Over a range of dynamic models, oil shock measures and data we fi nd a robust link between oil shocks and the volatility of...