IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/empfin/v17y2010i2p180-194.html

Exact inference and optimal invariant estimation for the stability parameter of symmetric [alpha]-stable distributions

Author

Listed:
  • Dufour, Jean-Marie
  • Kurz-Kim, Jeong-Ryeol

Abstract

Hill estimation (Hill, 1975), the most widespread method for estimating tail thickness of heavy-tailed financial data, suffers from two drawbacks. One is that the optimal number of tail observations to use in the estimation is a function of the unknown tail index being estimated, which diminishes the empirical relevance of the Hill estimation. The other is that the hypothesis test of the underlying data lying in the domain of attraction of an [alpha]-stable law ([alpha]Â =Â 2) for finite samples, is performed on the basis of the asymptotic distribution, which can be different from those for finite samples. In this paper, using the Monte Carlo technique, we propose an exact test method for the stability parameter of [alpha]-stable distributions which is based on the Hill estimator, yet is able to provide exact confidence intervals for finite samples. Our exact test method automatically includes an estimation procedure which does not need the assumption of a known number of observations on the distributional tail. Empirical applications demonstrate the advantages of our new method in comparison with the Hill estimation.

Suggested Citation

  • Dufour, Jean-Marie & Kurz-Kim, Jeong-Ryeol, 2010. "Exact inference and optimal invariant estimation for the stability parameter of symmetric [alpha]-stable distributions," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 180-194, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:empfin:v:17:y:2010:i:2:p:180-194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927-5398(09)00064-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    2. McCulloch, J Huston, 1997. "Measuring Tail Thickness to Estimate the Stable Index Alpha: A Critique," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 15(1), pages 74-81, January.
    3. Mandelbrot, Benoit B, 1972. "Correction of an Error in "The Variation of Certain Speculative Prices" (1963)," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(4), pages 542-543, October.
    4. Loretan, Michael Stanislaus & Kurz-Kim, Jeong-Ryeol, 2007. "A note on the coefficient of determination in regression models with infinite-variance variables," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2007,10, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    5. Dufour, Jean-Marie, 2006. "Monte Carlo tests with nuisance parameters: A general approach to finite-sample inference and nonstandard asymptotics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 133(2), pages 443-477, August.
    6. Einmahl, J. H.J. & Dekkers, A. L.M. & de Haan, L., 1989. "A moment estimator for the index of an extreme-value distribution," Other publications TiSEM 81970cb3-5b7a-4cad-9bf6-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Donald W. K. Andrews, 2003. "Tests for Parameter Instability and Structural Change with Unknown Change Point: A Corrigendum," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(1), pages 395-397, January.
    8. Borak, Szymon & Härdle, Wolfgang Karl & Weron, Rafał, 2005. "Stable distributions," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2005-008, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    9. Benoit Mandelbrot, 2015. "The Variation of Certain Speculative Prices," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Anastasios G Malliaris & William T Ziemba (ed.), THE WORLD SCIENTIFIC HANDBOOK OF FUTURES MARKETS, chapter 3, pages 39-78, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Johan Segers, 2002. "Abelian and Tauberian Theorems on the Bias of the Hill Estimator," Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics;Finnish Statistical Society;Norwegian Statistical Association;Swedish Statistical Association, vol. 29(3), pages 461-483, September.
    11. Carmela Quintos & Zhenhong Fan & Peter C. B. Phillips, 2001. "Structural Change Tests in Tail Behaviour and the Asian Crisis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 68(3), pages 633-663.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beaulieu, Marie-Claude & Dufour, Jean-Marie & Khalaf, Lynda, 2014. "Exact confidence sets and goodness-of-fit methods for stable distributions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 181(1), pages 3-14.
    2. Lynda Khalaf & Beatriz Peraza López, 2020. "Simultaneous Indirect Inference, Impulse Responses and ARMA Models," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-26, April.
    3. Kurz-Kim, Jeong-Ryeol & Loretan, Mico, 2014. "On the properties of the coefficient of determination in regression models with infinite variance variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 181(1), pages 15-24.
    4. Goddard, John & Onali, Enrico, 2012. "Self-affinity in financial asset returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 1-11.
    5. Ashis SenGupta & Moumita Roy, 2019. "An Universal, Simple, Circular Statistics-Based Estimator of α for Symmetric Stable Family," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-28, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:isu:genstf:201001010800002742 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Barunik, Jozef & Vacha, Lukas, 2010. "Monte Carlo-based tail exponent estimator," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(21), pages 4863-4874.
    3. Marco Rocco, 2011. "Extreme value theory for finance: a survey," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 99, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    4. Kurz-Kim, Jeong-Ryeol & Loretan, Mico, 2014. "On the properties of the coefficient of determination in regression models with infinite variance variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 181(1), pages 15-24.
    5. Weron, Rafał, 2004. "Computationally intensive Value at Risk calculations," Papers 2004,32, Humboldt University of Berlin, Center for Applied Statistics and Economics (CASE).
    6. Candelon, Bertrand & Straetmans, Stefan, 2006. "Testing for multiple regimes in the tail behavior of emerging currency returns," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 1187-1205, November.
    7. Nicolau, João & Rodrigues, Paulo M.M. & Stoykov, Marian Z., 2023. "Tail index estimation in the presence of covariates: Stock returns’ tail risk dynamics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2266-2284.
    8. Paolella, Marc S., 2017. "Asymmetric stable Paretian distribution testing," Econometrics and Statistics, Elsevier, vol. 1(C), pages 19-39.
    9. Straetmans, Stefan & Candelon, Bertrand, 2013. "Long-term asset tail risks in developed and emerging markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1832-1844.
    10. Philipp Hartmann & Stefan Straetmans & Casper de Vries, 2007. "Banking System Stability. A Cross-Atlantic Perspective," NBER Chapters, in: The Risks of Financial Institutions, pages 133-188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Ibragimov Marat & Khamidov Rufat, 2010. "Heavy-Tailedness and Volatility in Emerging Foreign Exchange Markets: Theory and Empirics," EERC Working Paper Series 10/06e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    12. Dufour, Jean-Marie & Kurz-Kim, Jeong-Ryeol, 2003. "Exact tests and confidence sets for the tail coefficient of a-stable distributions," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2003,16, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    13. Dong Han & Fugee Tsung & Yanting Li & Jinguo Xian, 2010. "Detection of changes in a random financial sequence with a stable distribution," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(7), pages 1089-1111.
    14. Igor Fedotenkov, 2020. "A Review of More than One Hundred Pareto-Tail Index Estimators," Statistica, Department of Statistics, University of Bologna, vol. 80(3), pages 245-299.
    15. Runde, Ralf & Scheffner, Axel, 1998. "On the existence of moments: With an application to German stock returns," Technical Reports 1998,25, Technische Universität Dortmund, Sonderforschungsbereich 475: Komplexitätsreduktion in multivariaten Datenstrukturen.
    16. Chen, Zhimin & Ibragimov, Rustam, 2019. "One country, two systems? The heavy-tailedness of Chinese A- and H- share markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 115-141.
    17. Hayley Jang & Young Hoon Lee & Rodney Fort, 2019. "Winning In Professional Team Sports: Historical Moments," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 103-120, January.
    18. Graves, Timothy & Franzke, Christian L.E. & Watkins, Nicholas W. & Gramacy, Robert B. & Tindale, Elizabeth, 2017. "Systematic inference of the long-range dependence and heavy-tail distribution parameters of ARFIMA models," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 473(C), pages 60-71.
    19. Bidarkota, Prasad V. & Dupoyet, Brice V. & McCulloch, J. Huston, 2009. "Asset pricing with incomplete information and fat tails," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1314-1331, June.
    20. Fong, Wai Mun, 1997. "Robust beta estimation: Some empirical evidence," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 167-186.
    21. Dassios, Angelos & Qu, Yan & Zhao, Hongbiao, 2018. "Exact simulation for a class of tempered stable," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 86981, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:empfin:v:17:y:2010:i:2:p:180-194. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jempfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.