Value-at-Risk Theory and Practice

The first advanced book on value-at-risk

Chapter 4, Page 180
Exercise 9

Explain in your own words the difference between covariance stationarity and homoskedasticity. Does covariance stationarity imply homoskedasticity? Does covariance stationarity imply conditional homoskedasticity?

Solution

A stochastic process is covariance stationary if every segment of a given length has the same unconditional means, standard deviations and correlations (including autocorrelations and cross correlations) as every other segment of the same length. It is homoskedastic if the unconditional covariance matrix is the same for all terms of the stochastic process. Covariance stationarity implies homoskedasticity—just consider segments of length one and apply the definition of covariance stationarity. It does not imply conditional homoskedasticity—covariance stationarity says nothing about conditional distributions.

 

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