IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_12806.html

Long Memory and Asymmetric Uncertainty Effects on Stock Returns and Volatility: A Fractional Integration Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Guglielmo Maria Caporale
  • Luis Alberiko Gil-Alana
  • Jesus Pantoja Cárdenas

Abstract

This paper investigates how Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) affects the returns and volatility (proxied by squared returns) of 448 S&P 500 stocks over the period January 2010–December 2020, and whether volatility persistence is related to EPU sensitivity. Persistence is measured with three semiparametric estimators of the degree of fractional integration: the Geweke–Porter-Hudak log-periodogram regression, the local Whittle, and the exact local Whittle. The linear EPU–volatility link does not survive market-level controls, but extreme EPU shocks generate significant volatility responses in roughly one-fifth of the stocks examined, with a slightly greater impact of adverse (bad) news. Long memory in volatility is pervasive. Persistence and EPU sensitivity are negatively related at the standard bandwidth (ρ = −0.182, p = 0.0001), a link that survives controls for size, liquidity, market beta, and sector fixed effects, and that holds for the subsample of stocks whose long memory is statistically significant according to the Qu (2011) test. This association is mainly concentrated at low frequencies, consistently with a low-frequency phenomenon possibly caused by level shifts.

Suggested Citation

  • Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Luis Alberiko Gil-Alana & Jesus Pantoja Cárdenas, 2026. "Long Memory and Asymmetric Uncertainty Effects on Stock Returns and Volatility: A Fractional Integration Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 12806, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12806
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp12806.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luis A. Gil-Alana & James E. Payne, 2020. "Measuring the degree of persistence in the U.S. economic policy uncertainty index," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(10), pages 831-835, June.
    2. Lubos Pástor & Pietro Veronesi, 2012. "Uncertainty about Government Policy and Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1219-1264, August.
    3. Christensen, Kim & Timmermann, Allan & Veliyev, Bezirgen, 2025. "Warp speed price moves: Jumps after earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Jeon, Yoontae & McCurdy, Thomas H. & Zhao, Xiaofei, 2022. "News as sources of jumps in stock returns: Evidence from 21 million news articles for 9000 companies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 1-17.
    5. Diebold, Francis X. & Inoue, Atsushi, 2001. "Long memory and regime switching," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 131-159, November.
    6. Qu, Zhongjun, 2011. "A Test Against Spurious Long Memory," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 29(3), pages 423-438.
    7. Honghai Yu & Libing Fang & Boyang Sun, 2018. "The role of global economic policy uncertainty in long-run volatilities and correlations of U.S. industry-level stock returns and crude oil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Bekaert, Geert & Hodrick, Robert J. & Zhang, Xiaoyan, 2012. "Aggregate Idiosyncratic Volatility," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(6), pages 1155-1185, December.
    9. Nicholas Bloom, 2009. "The Impact of Uncertainty Shocks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 623-685, May.
    10. Jonathan Brogaard & Andrew Detzel, 2015. "The Asset-Pricing Implications of Government Economic Policy Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 3-18, January.
    11. Zhi Da & Sophie Shive, 2018. "Exchange traded funds and asset return correlations," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(1), pages 136-168, January.
    12. Lobato, Ignacio N & Velasco, Carlos, 2000. "Long Memory in Stock-Market Trading Volume," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 18(4), pages 410-427, October.
    13. Baillie, Richard T. & Morana, Claudio, 2009. "Modelling long memory and structural breaks in conditional variances: An adaptive FIGARCH approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1577-1592, August.
    14. Clifford M. Hurvich & Rohit Deo & Julia Brodsky, 1998. "The mean squared error of Geweke and Porter‐Hudak's estimator of the memory parameter of a long‐memory time series," Journal of Time Series Analysis, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 19-46, January.
    15. Hafner, Christian M. & Herwartz, Helmut, 2023. "Asymmetric volatility impulse response functions," LIDAM Reprints ISBA 2023029, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    16. Baillie, Richard T., 1996. "Long memory processes and fractional integration in econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 5-59, July.
    17. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    18. Brown, Stephen J, et al, 1992. "Survivorship Bias in Performance Studies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(4), pages 553-580.
    19. Hafner, Christian M. & Herwartz, Helmut, 2023. "Asymmetric volatility impulse response functions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    20. Jian Chen, 2024. "Jump Clustering, Information Flows, and Stock Price Efficiency†," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(5), pages 1588-1615.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abakah, Emmanuel Joel Aikins & Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Gil-Alana, Luis Alberiko, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty: Persistence and cross-country linkages," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Yuan, Di & Li, Sufang & Li, Rong & Zhang, Feipeng, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty, oil and stock markets in BRIC: Evidence from quantiles analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Dark, Jonathan, 2018. "Multivariate models with long memory dependence in conditional correlation and volatility," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 162-180.
    4. Chan, Yue-Cheong & Saffar, Walid & Wei, K.C. John, 2021. "How economic policy uncertainty affects the cost of raising equity capital: Evidence from seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    5. Li, Xiao-Ming, 2017. "New evidence on economic policy uncertainty and equity premium," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA), pages 41-56.
    6. Tarek A Hassan & Stephan Hollander & Laurence van Lent & Ahmed Tahoun, 2019. "Firm-Level Political Risk: Measurement and Effects," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 2135-2202.
    7. Tarkom, Augustine & Ujah, Nacasius U., 2023. "Global policy uncertainty and working capital management: Does national culture matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    8. Jun Wen & Samia Khalid & Hamid Mahmood & Xiuyun Yang, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and growth nexus in Pakistan: a new evidence using NARDL model," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 1701-1715, August.
    9. Abir Abid & Christophe Rault, 2021. "On the Exchange Rates Volatility and Economic Policy Uncertainty Nexus: A Panel VAR Approach for Emerging Markets," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(3), pages 403-425, September.
    10. Theodora Bermpei & Antonios Nikolaos Kalyvas & Lorenzo Neri & Antonella Russo, 2022. "Does economic policy uncertainty matter for financial reporting quality? Evidence from the United States," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 795-845, February.
    11. Smimou, K. & Bosch, D. & Filbeck, G., 2024. "Commodities and Policy Uncertainty Channel(s)," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 351-379.
    12. Renzo Pardo Figueroa & Gabriel Rodríguez, 2014. "Distinguishing between True and Spurious Long Memory in the Volatility of Stock Market Returns in Latin America," Documentos de Trabajo / Working Papers 2014-395, Departamento de Economía - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
    13. Bianconi, Marcelo & Esposito, Federico & Sammon, Marco, 2021. "Trade policy uncertainty and stock returns," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Nartea, Gilbert V. & Bai, Hengyu & Wu, Ji, 2020. "Investor sentiment and the economic policy uncertainty premium," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Liu, Jinjing & Wang, Hong, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and the cost of capital," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    16. Huang, Yisu & Ma, Feng & Bouri, Elie & Huang, Dengshi, 2023. "A comprehensive investigation on the predictive power of economic policy uncertainty from non-U.S. countries for U.S. stock market returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    17. Hong, Yun & Zhang, Rushan & Zhang, Feipeng, 2024. "Time-varying causality impact of economic policy uncertainty on stock market returns: Global evidence from developed and emerging countries," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    18. Dai, Peng-Fei & Xiong, Xiong & Zhou, Wei-Xing, 2021. "A global economic policy uncertainty index from principal component analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    19. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Menelaos Karanasos & Stavroula Yfanti, 2019. "Macro-Financial Linkages in the High-Frequency Domain: The Effects of Uncertainty on Realized Volatility," CESifo Working Paper Series 8000, CESifo.
    20. Kunal Saha & Vinodh Madhavan & Chandrashekhar G. R. & David McMillan, 2020. "Pitfalls in long memory research," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 1733280-173, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12806. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.