arXiv subjects

Johan Segers

Publications and source records attributed to Johan Segers.

94 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

A method of moments estimator of tail dependence

In the world of multivariate extremes, estimation of the dependence structure still presents a challenge and an interesting problem. A procedure for the bivariate case is presented that opens the road to a similar way of handling the problem in a truly multivariate setting. We consider a semi-parametric model in which the stable tail dependence function is parametrically modeled. Given a random sample from a bivariate distribution function, the problem is to estimate the unknown parameter. A method of moments estimator is proposed where a certain integral of a nonparametric, rank-based estimator of the stable tail dependence function is matched with the corresponding parametric version. Under very weak conditions, the estimator is shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. Moreover, a comparison between the parametric and nonparametric estimators leads to a goodness-of-fit test for the semiparametric model. The performance of the estimator is illustrated for a discrete spectral measure that arises in a factor-type model and for which likelihood-based methods break down. A second example is that of a family of stable tail dependence functions of certain meta-elliptical distributions.

math.ST↗

arXiv2007

Tails of random sums of a heavy-tailed number of light-tailed terms

The tail of the distribution of a sum of a random number of independent and identically distributed nonnegative random variables depends on the tails of the number of terms and of the terms themselves. This situation is of interest in the collective risk model, where the total claim size in a portfolio is the sum of a random number of claims. If the tail of the claim number is heavier than the tail of the claim sizes, then under certain conditions the tail of the total claim size does not change asymptotically if the individual claim sizes are replaced by their expectations. The conditions allow the claim number distribution to be of consistent variation or to be in the domain of attraction of a Gumbel distribution with a mean excess function that grows to infinity sufficiently fast. Moreover, the claim number is not necessarily required to be independent of the claim sizes.

math.PR↗

arXiv2007

Regularly varying multivariate time series

A multivariate, stationary time series is said to be jointly regularly varying if all its finite-dimensional distributions are multivariate regularly varying. This property is shown to be equivalent to weak convergence of the conditional distribution of the rescaled series given that, at a fixed time instant, its distance to the origin exceeds a threshold tending to infinity. The limit object, called the tail process, admits a decomposition in independent radial and angular components. Under an appropriate mixing condition, this tail process allows for a concise and explicit description of the limit of a sequence of point processes recording both the times and the positions of the time series when it is far away from the origin. The theory is applied to multivariate moving averages of finite order with random coefficient matrices.

math.PR↗

arXiv2007

Multivariate regular variation of heavy-tailed Markov chains

The upper extremes of a Markov chain with regulary varying stationary marginal distribution are known to exhibit under general conditions a multiplicative random walk structure called the tail chain. More generally, if the Markov chain is allowed to switch from positive to negative extremes or vice versa, the distribution of the tail chain increment may depend on the sign of the tail chain on the previous step. But even then, the forward and backward tail chain mutually determine each other through a kind of adjoint relation. As a consequence, the finite-dimensional distributions of the Markov chain are multivariate regularly varying in a way determined by the back-and-forth tail chain. An application of the theory yields the asymptotic distribution of the past and the future of the solution to a stochastic difference equation conditionally on the present value being large in absolute value.

math.PR↗