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Review of Financial Studies Vol. 38 No. 10 2025

Weak Identification of Long Memory with Implications for Volatility Modeling

Jia Li1; Peter C. B. Phillips2,3,1; Shuping Shi4; Jun Yu5

1 Singapore Management University · 2 Yale University · 3 University of Auckland · 4 Macquarie University · 5 University of Macau

Abstract

This paper explores implications of weak identification in common ‘long memory’ and recent ‘rough’ approaches to modeling volatility dynamics of financial assets. We unveil an asymptotic near-observational equivalence between a long memory model with weak autoregressive dynamics and a rough model with a near-unit autoregressive root. Standard methods struggle to distinguish them, and conventional asymptotics are invalid. We propose an identification-robust approach to construct confidence sets that reveal the uncertainty and aid inference. Empirical studies based on realized volatility and trading volume often fail to statistically reject either model, thereby providing evidence of their potential coexistence.

DOI
10.1093/rfs/hhaf022
Volume
38
Issue
10
Pages
3117-3148
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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