arXiv subjects

Roger J. A. Laeven

Publications and source records attributed to Roger J. A. Laeven.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Law-Invariant Return and Star-Shaped Risk Measures

This paper presents novel characterization results for classes of law-invariant star-shaped functionals. We begin by establishing characterizations for positively homogeneous and star-shaped functionals that exhibit second- or convex-order stochastic dominance consistency. Building on these characterizations, we proceed to derive Kusuoka-type representations for these functionals, shedding light on their mathematical structure and intimate connections to Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall. Furthermore, we offer representations of general law-invariant star-shaped functionals as robustifications of Value-at-Risk. Notably, our results are versatile, accommodating settings that may, or may not, involve monotonicity and/or cash-additivity. All of these characterizations are developed within a general locally convex topological space of random variables, ensuring the broad applicability of our results in various financial, insurance and probabilistic contexts.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2023

Large deviations asymptotics for unbounded additive functionals of diffusion processes

We study large deviations asymptotics for a class of unbounded additive functionals, interpreted as normalized accumulated areas, of one-dimensional Langevin diffusions with sub-linear gradient drifts. Our results provide parametric insights on the speed and the rate functions in terms of the growth rate of the drift and the growth rate of the additive functional. We find a critical value in terms of these growth parameters that dictates regions of sub-linear speed for our large deviations asymptotics. Our approach is based upon various constructions of independent interest, including a decomposition of the diffusion process in terms of alternating renewal cycles and a detailed analysis of the paths during a cycle using suitable time and spatial scales. The key to the sub-linear behavior is a heavy-tailed large deviations phenomenon arising from the principle of a single big jump coupled with the result that at each regeneration cycle the upper-tail asymptotic behavior of the accumulated area of the diffusion process is proven to be semi-exponential (i.e., of heavy-tailed Weibull type).

math.PR↗

arXiv2023

Dynamic Return and Star-Shaped Risk Measures via BSDEs

This paper establishes characterization results for dynamic return and star-shaped risk measures induced via backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs). We first characterize a general family of static star-shaped functionals in a locally convex Fréchet lattice. Next, employing the Pasch-Hausdorff envelope, we build a suitable family of convex drivers of BSDEs inducing a corresponding family of dynamic convex risk measures of which the dynamic return and star-shaped risk measures emerge as the essential minimum. Furthermore, we prove that if the set of star-shaped supersolutions of a BSDE is not empty, then there exists, for each terminal condition, at least one convex BSDE with a non-empty set of supersolutions, yielding the minimal star-shaped supersolution. We illustrate our theoretical results in a few examples and demonstrate their usefulness in two applications, to capital allocation and portfolio choice.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2023

Compound Multivariate Hawkes Processes: Large Deviations and Rare Event Simulation

In this paper, we establish a large deviations principle for a multivariate compound process induced by a multivariate Hawkes process with random marks. Our proof hinges on showing essential smoothness of the limiting cumulant of the multivariate compound process, resolving the inherent complication that this cumulant is implicitly characterized through a fixed-point representation. We employ the large deviations principle to derive logarithmic asymptotic results on the marginal ruin probabilities of the associated multivariate risk process. We also show how to conduct rare event simulation in this multivariate setting using importance sampling and prove the asymptotic efficiency of our importance sampling based estimator. The paper is concluded with a systematic assessment of the performance of our rare event simulation procedure.

math.PR↗

arXiv2023

Elicitability of Return Risk Measures

Informally, a risk measure is said to be elicitable if there exists a suitable scoring function such that minimizing its expected value recovers the risk measure. In this paper, we analyze the elicitability properties of the class of return risk measures (i.e., normalized, monotone and positively homogeneous risk measures). First, we provide dual representation results for convex and geometrically convex return risk measures. Next, we establish new axiomatic characterizations of Orlicz premia (i.e., Luxemburg norms). More specifically, we prove, under different sets of conditions, that Orlicz premia naturally arise as the only elicitable return risk measures. Finally, we provide a general family of strictly consistent scoring functions for Orlicz premia, a myriad of specific examples and a mixture representation suitable for constructing Murphy diagrams.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2022

Estimating Option Pricing Models Using a Characteristic Function-Based Linear State Space Representation

We develop a novel filtering and estimation procedure for parametric option pricing models driven by general affine jump-diffusions. Our procedure is based on the comparison between an option-implied, model-free representation of the conditional log-characteristic function and the model-implied conditional log-characteristic function, which is functionally affine in the model's state vector. We formally derive an associated linear state space representation and establish the asymptotic properties of the corresponding measurement errors. The state space representation allows us to use a suitably modified Kalman filtering technique to learn about the latent state vector and a quasi-maximum likelihood estimator of the model parameters, which brings important computational advantages. We analyze the finite-sample behavior of our procedure in Monte Carlo simulations. The applicability of our procedure is illustrated in two case studies that analyze S&P 500 option prices and the impact of exogenous state variables capturing Covid-19 reproduction and economic policy uncertainty.

econ.EM↗

arXiv2022

Quasi-Logconvex Measures of Risk

This paper introduces and fully characterizes the novel class of quasi-logconvex measures of risk, to stand on equal footing with the rich class of quasi-convex measures of risk. Quasi-logconvex risk measures naturally generalize logconvex return risk measures, just like quasi-convex risk measures generalize convex monetary risk measures. We establish their dual representation and analyze their taxonomy in a few (sub)classification results. Furthermore, we characterize quasi-logconvex risk measures in terms of properties of families of acceptance sets and provide their law-invariant representation. Examples and applications to portfolio choice and capital allocation are also discussed.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2021

Robust Multiple Stopping -- A Pathwise Duality Approach

We develop a method to solve, theoretically and numerically, general optimal stopping problems. Our general setting allows for multiple exercise rights, i.e., optimal multiple stopping, for a robust evaluation that accounts for model uncertainty, and for general reward processes driven by multi-dimensional jump-diffusions. Our approach relies on first establishing robust martingale dual representation results for the multiple stopping problem that satisfy appealing pathwise optimality (i.e., almost sure) properties. Next, we exploit these theoretical results to develop upper and lower bounds that, as we formally show, not only converge to the true solution asymptotically, but also constitute genuine pre-limiting upper and lower bounds. We illustrate the applicability of our approach in a few examples and analyze the impact of model uncertainty on optimal multiple stopping strategies.

math.PR↗

arXiv2021

Exact and Asymptotic Analysis of General Multivariate Hawkes Processes and Induced Population Processes

This paper considers population processes in which general, not necessarily Markovian, multivariate Hawkes processes dictate the stochastic arrivals. We establish results to determine the corresponding time-dependent joint probability distribution, allowing for general intensity decay functions, general intensity jumps, and general sojourn times. We obtain an exact, full characterization of the time-dependent joint transform of the multivariate population process and its underlying intensity process in terms of a fixed-point representation and corresponding convergence results. We also derive the asymptotic tail behavior of the population process and its underlying intensity process in the setting of heavy-tailed intensity jumps. By exploiting the results we establish, arbitrary joint spatial-temporal moments and other distributional properties can now be readily evaluated using standard transform differentiation and inversion techniques, and we illustrate this in a few examples.

math.PR↗

arXiv2021

Probability Premium and Attitude Towards Probability

Employing a generalized definition of Pratt (1964) and Arrow's (1965, 1971) probability premium, we introduce a new concept of attitude towards probability. We illustrate in a problem of risk sharing that whether attitude towards probability is a first-order or second-order phenomenon has important economic applications. By developing a local approximation to the probability premium, we show that the canonical rank-dependent utility model usually exhibits attitude towards probability of first order, whereas under the dual theory with smooth probability weighting functions attitude towards probability is a second-order trait.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2019

Systemic Risk: Conditional Distortion Risk Measures

In this paper, we introduce the rich classes of conditional distortion (CoD) risk measures and distortion risk contribution ($Δ$CoD) measures as measures of systemic risk and analyze their properties and representations. The classes include the well-known conditional Value-at-Risk, conditional Expected Shortfall, and risk contribution measures in terms of the VaR and ES as special cases. Sufficient conditions are presented for two random vectors to be ordered by the proposed CoD-risk measures and distortion risk contribution measures. These conditions are expressed using the conventional stochastic dominance, increasing convex/concave, dispersive, and excess wealth orders of the marginals and canonical positive/negative stochastic dependence notions. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate our theoretical findings. This paper is the second in a triplet of papers on systemic risk by the same authors. In \cite{DLZorder2018a}, we introduce and analyze some new stochastic orders related to systemic risk. In a third (forthcoming) paper, we attribute systemic risk to the different participants in a given risky environment.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2018

Goodness-of-Fit Testing for Copulas: A Distribution-Free Approach

Consider a random sample from a continuous multivariate distribution function $F$ with copula $C$. In order to test the null hypothesis that $C$ belongs to a certain parametric family, we construct an empirical process on the unit hypercube that converges weakly to a standard Wiener process under the null hypothesis. This process can therefore serve as a `tests generator' for asymptotically distribution-free goodness-of-fit testing of copula families. We also prove maximal sensitivity of this process to contiguous alternatives. Finally, we demonstrate through a Monte Carlo simulation study that our approach has excellent finite-sample performance, and we illustrate its applicability with a data analysis.

math.ST↗

arXiv2018

Dependent Microstructure Noise and Integrated Volatility Estimation from High-Frequency Data

In this paper, we develop econometric tools to analyze the integrated volatility of the efficient price and the dynamic properties of microstructure noise in high-frequency data under general dependent noise. We first develop consistent estimators of the variance and autocovariances of noise using a variant of realized volatility. Next, we employ these estimators to adapt the pre-averaging method and derive a consistent estimator of the integrated volatility, which converges stably to a mixed Gaussian distribution at the optimal rate $n^{1/4}$. To refine the finite sample performance, we propose a two-step approach that corrects the finite sample bias, which turns out to be crucial in applications. Our extensive simulation studies demonstrate the excellent performance of our two-step estimators. In an empirical study, we characterize the dependence structures of microstructure noise in several popular sampling schemes and provide intuitive economic interpretations; we also illustrate the importance of accounting for both the serial dependence in noise and the finite sample bias when estimating integrated volatility.

math.ST↗

arXiv2018

Dual Moments and Risk Attitudes

In decision under risk, the primal moments of mean and variance play a central role to define the local index of absolute risk aversion. In this paper, we show that in canonical non-EU models dual moments have to be used instead of, or on par with, their primal counterparts to obtain an equivalent index of absolute risk aversion.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2017

Risk Apportionment: The Dual Story

By specifying model free preferences towards simple nested classes of lottery pairs, we develop the dual story to stand on equal footing with that of (primal) risk apportionment. The dual story provides an intuitive interpretation, and full characterization, of dual counterparts of such concepts as prudence and temperance. The direction of preference between these nested classes of lottery pairs is equivalent to signing the successive derivatives of the probability weighting function within Yaari's (1987) dual theory. We explore implications of our results for optimal portfolio choice and show that the sign of the third derivative of the probability weighting function may be naturally linked to a self-protection problem.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2016

Robust Optimal Risk Sharing and Risk Premia in Expanding Pools

We consider the problem of optimal risk sharing in a pool of cooperative agents. We analyze the asymptotic behavior of the certainty equivalents and risk premia associated with the Pareto optimal risk sharing contract as the pool expands. We first study this problem under expected utility preferences with an objectively or subjectively given probabilistic model. Next, we develop a robust approach by explicitly taking uncertainty about the probabilistic model (ambiguity) into account. The resulting robust certainty equivalents and risk premia compound risk and ambiguity aversion. We provide explicit results on their limits and rates of convergence, induced by Pareto optimal risk sharing in expanding pools.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2015

Risk Aversion in the Small and in the Large under Rank-Dependent Utility

Under expected utility the local index of absolute risk aversion has played a central role in many applications. Besides, its link with the "global" concepts of the risk and probability premia has reinforced its attractiveness. This paper shows that, with an appropriate approach, similar developments can be achieved in the framework of Yaari's dual theory and, more generally, under rank-dependent utility.

q-fin.MF↗

arXiv2015

Asymptotically distribution-free goodness-of-fit testing for tail copulas

Let $(X_1,Y_1),\ldots,(X_n,Y_n)$ be an i.i.d. sample from a bivariate distribution function that lies in the max-domain of attraction of an extreme value distribution. The asymptotic joint distribution of the standardized component-wise maxima $\bigvee_{i=1}^nX_i$ and $\bigvee_{i=1}^nY_i$ is then characterized by the marginal extreme value indices and the tail copula $R$. We propose a procedure for constructing asymptotically distribution-free goodness-of-fit tests for the tail copula $R$. The procedure is based on a transformation of a suitable empirical process derived from a semi-parametric estimator of $R$. The transformed empirical process converges weakly to a standard Wiener process, paving the way for a multitude of asymptotically distribution-free goodness-of-fit tests. We also extend our results to the $m$-variate ($m>2$) case. In a simulation study we show that the limit theorems provide good approximations for finite samples and that tests based on the transformed empirical process have high power.

math.ST↗