Validity of Edgeworth expansions for realized volatility estimators

Abstract

The main contribution of this paper is to establish the formal validity of Edgeworth expansions for realized volatility estimators. First, in the context of no microstructure effects, our results rigorously justify the Edgeworth expansions for realized volatility derived in Gonçalves and Meddahi (2009, Econometrica 77, 283–306). Second, we show that the validity of the Edgeworth expansions for realized volatility might not cover the optimal two-point distribution wild bootstrap proposed by Gonçalves and Meddahi. Then, we propose a new optimal nonlattice distribution, which ensures the second-order correctness of the bootstrap. Third, in the presence of microstructure noise, based on our Edgeworth expansions, we show that the new optimal choice proposed in the absence of noise is still valid in noisy data for the pre-averaged realized volatility estimator proposed by Podolskij and Vetter (2009, Bernoulli 15, 634–658). Finally, we show how confidence intervals for integrated volatility can be constructed using these Edgeworth expansions for noisy data. Our Monte Carlo simulations show that the intervals based on the Edgeworth corrections have improved the finite sample properties relatively to the conventional intervals based on the normal approximation.