Pair-Copula Constructions for Financial Applications: A Review

Abstract

This survey reviews the large and growing literature on the use of pair-copula constructions (PCCs) in financial applications. Using a PCC, multivariate data that exhibit complex patterns of dependence can be modeled using bivariate copulae as simple building blocks. Hence, this model represents a very flexible way of constructing higher-dimensional copulae. In this paper, we survey inference methods and goodness-of-fit tests for such models, as well as empirical applications of the PCCs in finance and economics.

Keywords

• pair-copula constructions
• vines
• dependence
• conditional distribution
• flexibility