207 research outputs found
copulaedas: An R Package for Estimation of Distribution Algorithms Based on Copulas
The use of copula-based models in EDAs (estimation of distribution
algorithms) is currently an active area of research. In this context, the
copulaedas package for R provides a platform where EDAs based on copulas can be
implemented and studied. The package offers complete implementations of various
EDAs based on copulas and vines, a group of well-known optimization problems,
and utility functions to study the performance of the algorithms. Newly
developed EDAs can be easily integrated into the package by extending an S4
class with generic functions for their main components. This paper presents
copulaedas by providing an overview of EDAs based on copulas, a description of
the implementation of the package, and an illustration of its use through
examples. The examples include running the EDAs defined in the package,
implementing new algorithms, and performing an empirical study to compare the
behavior of different algorithms on benchmark functions and a real-world
problem
Nonparametric estimation of the tree structure of a nested Archimedean copula
One of the features inherent in nested Archimedean copulas, also called
hierarchical Archimedean copulas, is their rooted tree structure. A
nonparametric, rank-based method to estimate this structure is presented. The
idea is to represent the target structure as a set of trivariate structures,
each of which can be estimated individually with ease. Indeed, for any three
variables there are only four possible rooted tree structures and, based on a
sample, a choice can be made by performing comparisons between the three
bivariate margins of the empirical distribution of the three variables. The set
of estimated trivariate structures can then be used to build an estimate of the
target structure. The advantage of this estimation method is that it does not
require any parametric assumptions concerning the generator functions at the
nodes of the tree.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure
Modeling Dependencies in Finance using Copulae
In this paper we provide a review of copula theory with applications to finance. We illustrate the idea on the bivariate framework and discuss the simple, elliptical and Archimedean classes of copulae. Since the cop- ulae model the dependency structure between random variables, next we explain the link between the copulae and common dependency measures, such as Kendall's tau and Spearman's rho. In the next section the copulae are generalized to the multivariate case. In this general setup we discuss and provide an intensive literature review of estimation and simulation techniques. Separate section is devoted to the goodness-of-fit tests. The importance of copulae in finance we illustrate on the example of asset allocation problems, Value-at-Risk and time series models. The paper is complemented with an extensive simulation study and an application to financial data.Distribution functions, Dimension Reduction, Risk management, Statistical models
Mixed Marginal Copula Modeling
This article extends the literature on copulas with discrete or continuous
marginals to the case where some of the marginals are a mixture of discrete and
continuous components. We do so by carefully defining the likelihood as the
density of the observations with respect to a mixed measure. The treatment is
quite general, although we focus focus on mixtures of Gaussian and Archimedean
copulas. The inference is Bayesian with the estimation carried out by Markov
chain Monte Carlo. We illustrate the methodology and algorithms by applying
them to estimate a multivariate income dynamics model.Comment: 46 pages, 8 tables and 4 figure
Investigating dynamic dependence using copulae
A general methodology for time series modelling is developed which works down from distributional
properties to implied structural models including the standard regression relationship. This
general to specific approach is important since it can avoid spurious assumptions such as linearity
in the form of the dynamic relationship between variables. It is based on splitting the multivariate
distribution of a time series into two parts: (i) the marginal unconditional distribution, (ii) the
serial dependence encompassed in a general function , the copula. General properties of the class of
copula functions that fulfill the necessary requirements for Markov chain construction are exposed.
Special cases for the gaussian copula with AR(p) dependence structure and for archimedean copulae
are presented. We also develop copula based dynamic dependency measures — auto-concordance
in place of autocorrelation. Finally, we provide empirical applications using financial returns and
transactions based forex data. Our model encompasses the AR(p) model and allows non-linearity.
Moreover, we introduce non-linear time dependence functions that generalize the autocorrelation
function
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