Volatility Forecasting in Emerging Markets

The great majority of empirical studies have focused on asset markets in the US and other developed economies. The purpose of this research is to determine to what extent the findings of other researchers in relation to the characteristics of asset volatility in developed economies applies also to emerging markets. The important characteristics observed in asset volatility that we wish to identify and examine in emerging markets include clustering, (the tendency for periodic regimes of high or low volatility) long memory, asymmetry, and correlation with the underlying returns process. The extent to which such behaviors are present in emerging markets will serve to confirm or refute the conjecture that they are universal and not just the product of some factors specific to the intensely scrutinized, and widely traded developed markets. The ten emerging markets we consider comprise equity markets in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Taiwan focusing on the major market indices for those markets. After analyzing the characteristics of index volatility for these indices, the research goes on to develop single- and two-factor REGARCH models in the form by Alizadeh, Brandt and Diebold (2002)