Modelling interest rate volatility: Regime switches and level links

Modelling Interest Rate Volatility: Regime Switches and Level Links.— This paper presents a model encompassing the Markov switching model and the model based on a volatility-level link. This encompassing model allows to test these competing classes of volatility models against each other. If is found that both classes capture essential but different features of the interest rate volatility process. A volatility model incorporating both features, i.e., regime switches and level links, clearly outperforms both alternatives. The consequences of this finding, both for volatility prediction and for the selection of the more appropriate theoretical (continuous time) interest rate model, are discussed.     

Volatility transmission along the money market yield curve

Volatility Transmission along the Money Market Yield Curve. - The authors model the volatility of money market interest rates — and the transmission of volatility - along the money market yield curve in the UK, Germany, France and Spain. They find a significant volatility transmission from overnight to longer-term money market rates in France, Spain and the U.K. They also find that the countries with lower (higher) reserve requirements tend to have higher (lower) interbank interest rate volatility. However, reserve requirements generate a perverse seasonal effect at the end of the maintenance period.     

SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET VOLATILITY,ASYMMETRY AND RETAIL INTEREST RATES PASS‐THROUGH

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interest rate transmission mechanism for South Africa as an emerging economy in a pre‐repo and repo system. It explains how the money market rate is transmitted to the retail interest rates both in the long run and short run, and tests the symmetric and asymmetric interest rate pass‐through using the error‐correction model (ECM) and the adjusted ECM‐exponential generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ECM‐EGARCH) (1,1)‐M methodology. This permitted the examination of the impact of interest rate volatility, along with the leverage effect. An incomplete pass‐through is found in the short run. From the entire sample period, a symmetric adjustment is found in the deposit rate, which had upward rigidity adjustment, while an asymmetric adjustment is found in the lending rate, with a downward rigidity adjustment. All the adjustments supported the collusive pricing arrangements. According to the conditional variance estimation of the ECM‐EGARCH (1,1), negative volatility impact and leverage effect are present and influential only in the symmetric deposit interest rate adjustment process in South Africa.     

Money growth volatility and the demand for money in Germany: Friedman’s volatility hypothesis revisited

Money Growth Volatility and the Demand for Money in Germany: Friedman’s Volatility Hypothesis Revisited. — Recently, the Bundesbank claimed that monetary targeting has become considerably more difficult by the increased volatility of short-term money growth. The present paper investigates the impact of German money growth volatility on income velocity and money demand in view of Friedman’s money growth volatility hypothesis. Granger-causality tests provide some evidence for a velocity/volatility linkage. However, the estimation of volatility-augmented money demand functions reveals that — in contrast to Friedman’s hypothesis — increased money growth volatility lowered the demand for money.     

Divergence indicators and the volatility smoothness in semi-fixed exchange rate regimes

Divergence Indicators and the Volatility Smoothness in Semi-Fixed Exchange Rate Regimes. —Fixed or semi-fixed exchange rate regimes have volatility paths that are in general less smooth than their free floating counterpart. Moreover, there tends to be a correlation between the lack of smoothness and the weakness of the currency. In this article, the effects of divergence from central parity on the smoothness of the volatility are discussed within the framework of a TGARCH model. It is shown that, for various EMS rates, the divergence indicator has a statistically significant effect on the smoothness of the volatility path.     

Managing Stock Option Expense: The Manipulation of Option‐Pricing Model Assumptions*

This paper examines whether firms that voluntarily recognize stock option expense in their financial statements manage that expense downward more than firms that do not recognize the expense by adjusting option‐pricing model assumptions. To examine this issue, I collect option‐pricing model assumptions from fiscal year 2002 for both a sample of firms that voluntarily recognize stock option expense (“recognizing firms”) and a sample of control firms that do not (“disclosing firms”). The empirical results suggest that recognizing firms manage the recognized stock‐based compensation expense reported in their financial statements downward more than do firms that only disclose the expense. Additional analyses reveal that recognizing firms assume a lower level of volatility than disclosing firms in the option‐pricing model calculations; however, I find no evidence that recognizing firms manage the dividend yield and risk‐free interest rate assumptions more than disclosing firms. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123(R), which requires the expensing of the fair value of stock options, so these results may be of interest to capital‐market participants and the FASB as they assess the reliability of stock option expense as determined by option‐pricing models.     

Uncertainty and Compensation Design in Strategic Interfirm Contracts

In strategic outsourcing contracts, a substantial portion of implementation occurs at the client's premises and requires integration of effort between the vendor and the client. Compensation design in such contracts involves trade-offs between the higher (lower) incentive properties of fixed-price (cost-plus) contracts and their higher (lower) ex ante contracting and ex post adaptation costs. Uncertainty influences these trade-offs and affects compensation design. We explore the compensation implications of two types of uncertainty—volatility and ambiguity—which are reflected in the client's accounting measures. Volatility reflects the unpredictability of changes in the future environment, which makes it difficult to contractually specify future contingencies. Ambiguity reflects lack of consensus about the nature, drivers, and value effects of uncertainty, which makes it difficult to contractually specify responses to contingencies if and when they occur. Volatility increases the likelihood of ex post adaptation costs, while ambiguity increases ex ante contracting costs; therefore, volatility and ambiguity decrease the attractiveness of fixed-price contracts. We use accounting and market measures to calibrate volatility and ambiguity and examine their implications for compensation design and ex post renegotiation. Analysis of archival data for 455 strategic outsourcing contracts valued over $15 million indicates that volatility and ambiguity influence contract compensation design and renegotiation likelihood. These results hold even after controlling for asset specificity, task complexity, and relational factors. We conclude that accounting measures can provide signals of volatility and ambiguity and thereby influence compensation design in strategic interfirm contracts.     

The informational content of implied volatility: Application to the USD/JPY exchange rates

This paper tests the information content of the Japanese Yen Implied Volatility Index (JYVIX) regarding the future volatility of USD/JPY exchange rates. We find that JYVIX contains significant information about future volatility, and it even has incremental predictive power over the traditional GARCH-Type models. Implicitly, JYVIX as a looking-forward index provides better forecasts on conditional volatility rather than realized volatility. Our analysis further shows that the forecastability of the GARCH-Type model combined with JYVIX is more credible than these individual models. Specifically, the EGARCH model combined with the exogenous variable JYVIX outperforms all prediction models. Our findings provide a better prediction approach to the volatility of USD/JPY exchange rates, which has far-reaching significance for risk management in Asian economies.     

中国期货市场与现货市场之间的引导关系研究

利用DSEM与含有交易行为变量的VAR引导关系模型,本文分别对我国期货市场与现货市场之间的价格引导关系、波动性引导关系进行了实证研究。研究结果表明：铝、铜、橡胶和大豆期、现货价格之间均存在双向引导关系,但其期、现货价格之间的引导程度是不同的,总体而言,期货价格对现货价格均具有较强的引导作用,现货价格对期货价格的引导作用较弱;而小麦市场只存在期货价格对现货价格的引导关系。从期、现货市场之间的波动性关系而言,铝、铜、橡胶期、现货市场之间的波动性均存在双向引导关系,期货市场对现货市场的波动性引导作用均较强;大豆市场仅存在期货市场波动性对现货市场的单向引导作用：而小麦期、现货市场之间的波动性不存在任何引导关系。同时,本文从市场信息角度,系统研究了交易量和空盘量对期、现货市场的波动性的影响。     

What Makes Currencies Volatile? An Empirical Investigation

Real effective exchange rate volatility is examined for 90 countries using monthly data from January 1990 to June 2006. Volatility decreases with openness to international trade and per capita GDP, and increases with inflation, particularly under a horizontal peg or band, and with terms-of-trade volatility. The choice of exchange rate regime matters. After controlling for these effects, an independent float adds at least 45% to the standard deviation of the real effective exchange rate, relative to a conventional peg, but most other regimes make little difference. The results are robust to alternative volatility measures and to sample selection bias.     

Decomposing exchange rate volatility around the Pacific Rim

Volatility in exchange rates is decomposed into components associated with domestic and international concerns for six Pacific Rim currencies. A latent factor model is used to model bilateral exchange rate changes as the weighted sum of three factors; two factors are uniquely associated with each of the currencies involved in the exchange rates and the other represents world shocks common to all exchange rates. The results show that international factors are more important in determining exchange rate volatility for the smaller nations of Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand, than for the larger nations of Japan and Canada.     

基于日间高频交易数据的股市波动研究

本文利用上证综指在2005～2009年内的日间高频数据,通过已实现波动率这一概念对我国股市在这5年间的波动特性做了研究。进一步地,根据已实现波动率序列的统计特征,对其进行长记忆建模,并对模型的波动率预测效果与常规GARCH模型的预测效果做了对比分析。基于上证综指的研究结果表明,利用了日间高频信息的波动率模型在波动率预测上,比仅利用了收盘信息的GARCH模型更有优势。     

基于期指随机定价模型的A股市场风险度量研究

本文从期权定价模型的理论基础出发,首先介绍我国股指期货市场的发展情况,并引出股指期货理论研究的进展情况,然后从逆向思维的角度,通过运用期货随机定价模型对我国唯一的沪深300指数期货进行实证分析研究,试图推算出股指期货中的隐含波动率,获得该隐含波动率在反映未来市场波动风险方面的特性,为将来构造VIX指标寻找到适合的因子。     

Decomposing exchange rate volatility around the Pacific Rim☆

Volatility in exchange rates is decomposed into components associated with domestic and international concerns for six Pacific Rim currencies. A latent factor model is used to model bilateral exchange rate changes as the weighted sum of three factors; two factors are uniquely associated with each of the currencies involved in the exchange rates and the other represents world shocks common to all exchange rates. The results show that international factors are more important in determining exchange rate volatility for the smaller nations of Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand, than for the larger nations of Japan and Canada.     

金融危机背景下中国澳大利亚汇率波动的贸易传递效应

本文利用中国和澳大利亚两国贸易的月度数据,分析了在美国金融危机冲击下澳元和人民币汇率变化对中国和澳大利亚出口厂商定价行为的影响。研究发现,厂商的价格歧视及歧视程度随产品的不同各异。由于中国某些产品和澳洲当地产品具有较强的可替代性,"出口价格粘性"现象在中国向澳大利亚出口定价中有所体现;另一方面,由于澳大利亚的资源禀赋优势,某些产品拥有国际定价权,"出口价格粘性"现象在澳大利亚对中国的出口产品中没有得以体现。     

Does Other Comprehensive Income Volatility Influence Credit Risk and the Cost of Debt?

We examine the usefulness of other comprehensive income (OCI) to debt investors in nonfinancial companies. Motivated by Merton's (1974) real options framework, we construct a measure of incremental OCI volatility, designed to capture the effect of OCI on overall firm asset volatility, which is a primary driver of credit risk in Merton's (1974) model. We find that the volatility of incremental OCI influences the likelihood of default, credit ratings, and the cost of debt. Overall, our evidence suggests that creditors use information from OCI in their assessment of firm credit risk and in pricing debt contracts.     

Currency Networks, Bilateral Exchange Rate Volatility and the Role of the US Dollar

We investigate monthly bilateral exchange rate volatility for a large sample of currency pairs over the period 1999?C2006. Pegs (particularly to the US dollar) and managed floats tend to have lower volatility than independent floats. A deeper investigation shows that the peg effect operates almost entirely through currency networks (i.e. where two currencies are pegged to the same anchor currency), and the lower volatility of US dollar pegs reflects the size of the US dollar network. Managed floats show clear evidence of tracking the US dollar, further increasing the effective size of the US dollar network. Inflation undermines the currency-stabilizing effect of peg networks. Currencies in smaller peg networks have higher unweighted but not trade-weighted exchange rate volatility, which is consistent with anchors being chosen to minimize trade-weighted volatility. The size of the effective US dollar network revealed here is a plausible explanation of the rarity of basket pegs. Volatility also reflects a range of structural factors such as country size, level of development, population density, inflation differentials and business cycle asymmetry.     

中国市场短期利率动态研究-基于有效矩方法的实证分析

本文以上海证券交易所国债回购市场的7天期回购利率为分析对象,选择从2000年1月4日到2005年12月13日的每日数据为样本,采用有效矩估计对三个在国外文献中流行的利率模型:CKLS模型、SV2模型、SV3模型进行实证分析.结果表明单因子CKLS模型不能很好的刻画我国短期利率的动态特征,SV2模型和SV3模型则可以较好的描述短期利率的动态变化过程.同时,受制于利率市场化问题,我国短期利率的水平效应较之于美国弱很多.     

中国股市收益率与波动率跳跃性特征的实证分析

股票市场收益率通常小幅波动，但是当市场出现重大或者异常信息时，收益率会在短时间内发生大规模的运动．产生跳跃性变化，市场波动率也明显加剧。本文采用Jump—GARCH对沪深两市A股B股的这类跳跃性特征进行实证分析。根据该模型：当收益率小规模变化时，波动率由GARCH（1，1）平稳随机过程产生，但是当收益率发生跳跃性变化，波动率将背离GARCH（1，1）过程．调整到一个较高的水平。实证结果表明，该模型能够有效地估计出沪深两市收益率和波动率的跳跃性变化．比正态分布的GARCH模型更合理地反应了市场收益率和波动率过程。本文同时讨论了A股B股的跳跃性特征。     

A regime-switching analysis of pass-through

We empirically investigate how various economic factors affect the changes in the pricing policies of exporters, in particular changes in the exchange rate pass-through. Assuming exporters set prices following either a high or a low pass-through pricing policy, and assuming that the transition probabilities between these pricing policies depend on market concentration, exporting country??s market share and monetary stability, we estimate a Markov regime-switching model, using data we have collected on imported cars to the United States. Our findings show that the ??low pass-through?? regime is characterized by: lower exchange rate pass-through, low response to misalignments in the firm??s relative price, low volatility of exogenous shocks, and higher duration. When we decompose the changes in the pass-through in our sample, we find that monetary stability has been the most important factor behind the decline in the pass-through. Monetary stability explains more than 50% of the decline in the exchange rate pass-through, while country market share and market concentration explain about 25 and 10%, respectively.