COPULA Procedure

Calibration Estimation

Instead of fitting the whole distribution as in MLE methods, you can directly use empirical estimates of distribution parameters. The unknown parameter that you want to estimate can be obtained by calibration using Kendall’s tau. There exists a one-to-one map between the parameter at interest and Kendall’s tau. Therefore, after you estimate the Kendall’s tau, you can use the map to compute the parameter value. For example, the parameter matrix normal upper Sigma in a t copula and the parameter theta in Archimedean copulas can be estimated in this manner. The most frequently used estimator of Kendall’s tau is the rank correlation coefficient:

ModifyingAbove rho With caret Subscript tau Baseline left-parenthesis upper X Subscript i Baseline comma upper X Subscript j Baseline right-parenthesis equals StartBinomialOrMatrix n Choose 2 EndBinomialOrMatrix Superscript negative 1 Baseline sigma-summation Underscript 1 less-than-or-equal-to t less-than s less-than-or-equal-to n Endscripts normal s normal i normal g normal n left-parenthesis left-parenthesis x Subscript t comma i Baseline minus x Subscript s comma i Baseline right-parenthesis left-parenthesis x Subscript t comma j Baseline minus x Subscript s comma j Baseline right-parenthesis right-parenthesis

The preceding formula is analogous to its population counterpart

rho Subscript tau Baseline left-parenthesis upper X Subscript i Baseline comma upper X Subscript j Baseline right-parenthesis equals upper E left-bracket normal s normal i normal g normal n left-parenthesis left-parenthesis upper X Subscript i Baseline minus upper X overTilde Subscript i Baseline right-parenthesis left-parenthesis upper X Subscript j Baseline minus upper X overTilde Subscript j Baseline right-parenthesis right-parenthesis right-bracket

where left-parenthesis upper X overTilde Subscript i Baseline comma upper X overTilde Subscript j Baseline right-parenthesis has the same distribution but is independent of left-parenthesis upper X Subscript i Baseline comma upper X Subscript j Baseline right-parenthesis.

For Archimedean multivariate copulas there is only one parameter to estimate, tau (or its function theta), although for m variables there are m left-parenthesis m minus 1 right-parenthesis slash 2 unique pairwise correlation coefficients. Denote the map from rho Subscript tau to theta by theta equals ModifyingAbove theta With caret left-parenthesis rho Subscript tau Baseline right-parenthesis. To aggregate the map, take simple arithmetic average:

ModifyingAbove theta With caret equals StartFraction 2 Over m left-parenthesis m minus 1 right-parenthesis EndFraction sigma-summation Underscript 1 less-than-or-equal-to i less-than j less-than-or-equal-to m Endscripts ModifyingAbove theta With caret left-bracket ModifyingAbove rho With caret Subscript tau Baseline left-parenthesis upper X Subscript i Baseline comma upper X Subscript j Baseline right-parenthesis right-bracket
Last updated: June 19, 2025