Likelihood inference for Archimedean copulas

Abstract

Explicit functional forms for the generator derivatives of well-known one-parameter Archimedean copulas are derived. These derivatives are essential for likelihood inference as they appear in the copula density, conditional distribution functions, or the Kendall distribution function. They are also required for several asymmetric extensions of Archimedean copulas such as Khoudraji-transformed Archimedean copulas. Access to the generator derivatives makes maximum-likelihood estimation for Archimedean copulas feasible in terms of both precision and run time, even in large dimensions. It is shown by simulation that the root mean squared error is decreasing in the dimension. This decrease is of the same order as the decrease in sample size. Furthermore, confidence intervals for the parameter vector are derived. Moreover, extensions to multi-parameter Archimedean families are given. All presented methods are implemented in the open-source R package nacopula and can thus easily be accessed and studied.