The Effect of Initial Margin on Long-run and Short-run Volatilities in Japan

This paper examines the effect of initial margin requirements on long-run and short-run volatilities in the Japanese stock market using the Component GARCH model. Our empirical results show that when we do not divide the margin requirement into positive and negative changes, increasing margin requirement is effective for reducing long-run volatility, while not effective in short-run volatility. However, separating the positive and negative changes in margin requirements reveals the fact that the negative changes in margin requirements decrease long-run volatilities, while the higher margin requirements increase short-run volatilities in the Japanese stock market. This suggests that if the Japanese financial authorities intend to increase margin level to reduce volatility, unexpectedly, short-run volatility would be even higher.