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Copulas — Modeling Dependence

Advanced Statistical MethodsSpecialized Methods🟢 Free Lesson

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Copulas — Modeling Dependence

Advanced Statistical Methods

Separating Marginal Behavior From Joint Dependence

Copulas model the dependence structure between variables independently of their marginal distributions, thanks to Sklar's theorem. Gaussian, t, and Archimedean copulas capture different tail dependence patterns.

  • Finance — Model joint extreme losses across assets for portfolio risk management
  • Insurance — Correlate claim amounts across multiple coverage lines for solvency modeling
  • Hydrology — Link rainfall and river flow distributions for flood risk assessment

Copulas let you model how variables move together without being constrained by their individual distributions.


Gaussian Copula

Student's t-Copula

Archimedean Copulas

Dependence Measures

Vine Copulas

import numpy as np
from scipy import stats
from scipy.special import gamma

class CopulaModel:
    def __init__(self, data):
        self.data = np.asarray(data)
        self.n, self.d = self.data.shape

    def empirical_cdf(self):
        ranks = np.apply_along_axis(stats.rankdata, 0, self.data)
        return ranks / (self.n + 1)

    def gaussian_copula_fit(self):
        U = self.empirical_cdf()
        Z = stats.norm.ppf(np.clip(U, 1e-10, 1-1e-10))
        R = np.corrcoef(Z.T)
        return R

    def t_copula_fit(self):
        U = self.empirical_cdf()
        Z = stats.t.ppf(np.clip(U, 1e-10, 1-1e-10), df=5)
        R = np.corrcoef(Z.T)
        return R, 5.0

    def clayton_copula(self, u, v, theta):
        return (u**(-theta) + v**(-theta) - 1)**(-1/theta)

    def gumbel_copula(self, u, v, theta):
        return np.exp(-((-np.log(u))**theta + (-np.log(v))**theta)**(1/theta))

    def frank_copula(self, u, v, theta):
        num = np.exp(-theta*u) - 1
        den = np.exp(-theta) - 1
        return -np.log(1 + (num * (np.exp(-theta*v) - 1)) / (den * np.exp(-theta*(u+v)/2))) / theta

    def kendalls_tau(self, u, v):
        n = len(u)
        concordant = 0
        discordant = 0
        for i in range(n):
            for j in range(i+1, n):
                d = (u[i] - u[j]) * (v[i] - v[j])
                if d > 0:
                    concordant += 1
                elif d < 0:
                    discordant += 1
        return (concordant - discordant) / (concordant + discordant)

    def tail_dependence_coefficient(self, u, v, threshold=0.95):
        n = len(u)
        upper = np.sum((u > threshold) & (v > threshold)) / (n * (1 - threshold))
        lower = np.sum((u < 1-threshold) & (v < 1-threshold)) / (n * (1 - threshold))
        return upper, lower

    def simulate_gaussian(self, R, n_samples):
        d = R.shape[0]
        L = np.linalg.cholesky(R)
        Z = np.random.standard_normal((n_samples, d))
        X = Z @ L.T
        U = stats.norm.cdf(X)
        return U

Applications in Finance

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