The Volatility of High-Yield Bonds Using Mixed Data Sampling Methods

Abstract

It is well known that economic policy uncertainty prompts the volatility of the high-yield bond market. However, the correlation between economic policy uncertainty and volatility of high-yield bonds is still not clear. In this paper, we employ GARCH-MIDAS models to investigate their correlation with US economic policy uncertainty index and S&P high-yield bond index. The empirical studies show that mixed volatility models can effectively capture the realized volatility of high-yield bonds, and economic policy uncertainty and macroeconomic factors have significant effects on the long-term component of high-yield bonds volatility.