On the Economic Sources of Stock Market Volatility

54 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2009

See all articles by Robert F. Engle

Robert F. Engle

New York University (NYU) - Department of Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); New York University (NYU) - Volatility and Risk Institute

Eric Ghysels

University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School; University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Department of Economics

Bumjean Sohn

Korea University Business School

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 2009

Abstract

We revisit the relation between stock market volatility and macroeconomic activity using a new class of component models that distinguish short run from secular movements. We combine insights from Engle and Rangel (2007) and the recent work on mixed data sampling (MIDAS), as in e.g. Ghysels, Santa-Clara, and Valkanov (2005). The new class of models is called GARCH-MIDAS, since it uses a mean reverting unit daily GARCH process, similar to Engle and Rangel (2007), and a MIDAS polynomial which applies to monthly, quarterly, or bi-annual macroeconomic or financial variables. We study long historical data series of aggregate stock market volatility, starting in the 19th century, as in Schwert (1989). We formulate models with the long term component driven by inflation and industrial production growth that are at par in terms of out-of-sample prediction for horizons of one quarter and out-perform more traditional time series volatility models at longer horizons. Hence, imputing economic fundamentals into volatility models pays off in terms of long horizon forecasting. We also find that at a daily level, inflation and industrial production growth, account for between 10% and 35% of one-day ahead volatility prediction. Hence, macroeconomic fundamentals play a significant role even at short horizons. Unfortunately, all the models - purely time series ones as well as those driven by economic variables - feature structural breaks over the entire sample spanning roughly a century and a half of daily data. Consequently, our analysis also focuses on subsamples - pre-WWI, the Great Depression era, and post-WWII (also split to examine the so called Great Moderation). Our main findings remain valid across subsamples.

Suggested Citation

Engle, Robert F. and Ghysels, Eric and Sohn, Bumjean, On the Economic Sources of Stock Market Volatility (February 2009). NYU Working Paper No. FIN-08-043, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1354530

Robert F. Engle (Contact Author)

New York University (NYU) - Department of Finance ( email )

Stern School of Business
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New York, NY 10012-1126
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
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New York University (NYU) - Volatility and Risk Institute ( email )

44 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012
United States

Eric Ghysels

University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School ( email )

Kenan-Flagler Business School
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3490
United States

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Department of Economics ( email )

Gardner Hall, CB 3305
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
United States
919-966-5325 (Phone)
919-966-4986 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://https://eghysels.web.unc.edu/

Bumjean Sohn

Korea University Business School ( email )

Seoul, 136-701

HOME PAGE: http://biz.korea.ac.kr/professor/sohnb

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