Characterizing a comonotonic random vector by the distribution of the sum of its components

In this article, we characterize comonotonicity and related dependence structures among several random variables by the distribution of their sum. First we prove that if the sum has the same distribution as the corresponding comonotonic sum, then the underlying random variables must be comonotonic as long as each of them is integrable. In the literature, this result is only known to be true if either each random variable is square integrable or possesses a continuous distribution function. We then study the situation when the distribution of the sum only coincides with the corresponding comonotonic sum in the tail. This leads to the dependence structure known as tail comonotonicity. Finally, by establishing some new results concerning convex order, we show that comonotonicity can also be characterized by expected utility and distortion risk measures.     

Upper comonotonicity and convex upper bounds for sums of random variables

It is well-known that if a random vector with given marginal distributions is comonotonic, it has the largest sum with respect to convex order. However, replacing the (unknown) copula by the comonotonic copula will in most cases not reflect reality well. For instance, in an insurance context we may have partial information about the dependence structure of different risks in the lower tail. In this paper, we extend the aforementioned result, using the concept of upper comonotonicity, to the case where the dependence structure of a random vector in the lower tail is already known. Since upper comonotonic random vectors have comonotonic behavior in the upper tail, we are able to extend several well-known results of comonotonicity to upper comonotonicity. As an application, we construct different increasing convex upper bounds for sums of random variables and compare these bounds in terms of increasing convex order.     

Characterization of upper comonotonicity via tail convex order

In this paper, we show a characterization of upper comonotonicity via tail convex order. For any given marginal distributions, a maximal random vector with respect to tail convex order is proved to be upper comonotonic under suitable conditions. As an application, we consider the computation of the Haezendonck risk measure of the sum of upper comonotonic random variables with exponential marginal distributions.     

Upper comonotonicity

In this article, we study a new notion called upper comonotonicity, which is a generalization of the classical notion of comonotonicity. A random vector is upper-comonotonic if its components are moving in the same direction simultaneously when their values are greater than some thresholds. We provide a characterization of this new notion in terms of both the joint distribution function and the underlying copula. The copula characterization allows us to study the coefficient of upper tail dependence as well as the distributional representation of an upper-comonotonic random vector. As an application to financial economics, we show that the several commonly used risk measures, like the Value-at-Risk, the Tail Value-at-Risk, and the expected shortfall, are additive, not only for sum of comonotonic risks, but also for sum of upper-comonotonic risks, provided that the level of probability is greater than a certain threshold.     

On sums of two counter-monotonic risks

In risk management, capital requirements are most often based on risk measurements of the aggregation of individual risks treated as random variables. The dependence structure between such random variables has a strong impact on the behavior of the aggregate loss. One finds an extensive literature on the study of the sum of comonotonic risks but less, in comparison, has been done regarding the sum of counter-monotonic risks. A crucial result for comonotonic risks is that the Value-at-risk and the Tail Value-at-risk of their sum correspond respectively to the sum of the Value-at-risk and Tail Value-at-risk of the individual risks. In this paper, our main objective is to derive such simple results for the sum of counter-monotonic risks. To do so, we examine separately different contexts in the class of bivariate strictly continuous distributions for which we obtain closed-form expressions for the Value-at-risk and Tail Value-at-risk of the sum of two counter-monotonic risks. The expressions for the subadditive Tail Value-at risk allow us to quantify the maximal diversification benefit. Also, our findings allow us to analyze the tail of the distribution of the sum of two identically subexponentially distributed counter-monotonic random variables.     

Characterization of comonotonicity using convex order

It is well known that if a random vector with given marginal distributions is comonotonic, it has the largest sum with respect to the convex order. In this paper, we prove that the converse is also true, provided that each marginal distribution is continuous.     

Reducing risk by merging counter-monotonic risks

In this article, we show that some important implications concerning comonotonic couples and corresponding convex order relations for their sums cannot be translated to counter-monotonicity in general. In a financial context, it amounts to saying that merging counter-monotonic positions does not necessarily reduce the overall level of risk. We propose a simple necessary and sufficient condition for such a merge to be effective. Natural interpretations and various characterizations of this condition are given. As applications, we develop cancelation laws for convex order and identify desirable structural properties of insurance indemnities that make an insurance contract universally marketable, in the sense that it is appealing to both the policyholder and the insurer.     

Improved convex upper bound via conditional comonotonicity

Comonotonicity provides a convenient convex upper bound for a sum of random variables with arbitrary dependence structure. Improved convex upper bound was introduced via conditioning by Kaas et al. [Kaas, R., Dhaene, J., Goovaerts, M., 2000. Upper and lower bounds for sums of random variables. Insurance: Math. Econ. 27, 151-168]. In this paper, we unify these results in a more general context using the concept of conditional comonotonicity. We also construct an approximating sequence of convex upper bounds with nice convergence properties.     

Bounds and approximations for sums of dependent log-elliptical random variables

Dhaene, Denuit, Goovaerts, Kaas and Vyncke [Dhaene, J., Denuit, M., Goovaerts, M.J., Kaas, R., Vyncke, D., 2002a. The concept of comonotonicity in actuarial science and finance: theory. Insurance Math. Econom. 31 (1), 3-33; Dhaene, J., Denuit, M., Goovaerts, M.J., Kaas, R., Vyncke, D., 2002b. The concept of comonotonicity in actuarial science and finance: Applications. Insurance Math. Econom. 31 (2), 133-161] have studied convex bounds for a sum of dependent random variables and applied these to sums of log-normal random variables. In particular, they have shown how these convex bounds can be used to derive closed-form approximations for several of the risk measures of such a sum. In this paper we investigate to which extent their general results on convex bounds can also be applied to sums of log-elliptical random variables which incorporate sums of log-normals as a special case. Firstly, we show that unlike the log-normal case, for general sums of log-ellipticals the convex lower bound does no longer result in closed-form approximations for the different risk measures. Secondly, we demonstrate how instead the weaker stop-loss order can be used to derive such closed-form approximations. We also present numerical examples to show the accuracy of the proposed approximations.     

Comonotonic convex upper bound and majorization

When the dependence structure among several risks is unknown, it is common in the actuarial literature to study the worst dependence structure that gives rise to the riskiest aggregate loss. A central result is that the aggregate loss is the riskiest with respect to convex order when the underlying risks are comonotonic. Many proofs were given before. The objective of this article is to present a new proof using the notions of decreasing rearrangement and the majorization theorem, and give clear explanation of the relation between convex order, the theory of majorization and comonotonicity.     

Characterization of comonotonicity using convex order

It is well known that if a random vector with given marginal distributions is comonotonic, it has the largest sum with respect to the convex order. In this paper, we prove that the converse is also true, provided that each marginal distribution is continuous.     

Quantifying the error of convex order bounds for truncated first moments

The concepts of convex order and comonotonicity have become quite popular in risk theory, essentially since Kaas et al. [Kaas, R., Dhaene, J., Goovaerts, M.J., 2000. Upper and lower bounds for sums of random variables. Insurance: Math. Econ. 27, 151-168] constructed bounds in the convex order sense for a sum S of random variables without imposing any dependence structure upon it. Those bounds are especially helpful, if the distribution of S cannot be calculated explicitly or is too cumbersome to work with. This will be the case for sums of lognormally distributed random variables, which frequently appear in the context of insurance and finance.In this article we quantify the maximal error in terms of truncated first moments, when S is approximated by a lower or an upper convex order bound to it. We make use of geometrical arguments; from the unknown distribution of S only its variance is involved in the computation of the error bounds. The results are illustrated by pricing an Asian option. It is shown that under certain circumstances our error bounds outperform other known error bounds, e.g. the bound proposed by Nielsen and Sandmann [Nielsen, J.A., Sandmann, K., 2003. Pricing bounds on Asian options. J. Financ. Quant. Anal. 38, 449-473].     

Comonotonic bounds on the survival probabilities in the Lee–Carter model for mortality projection

In the Lee–Carter framework, future survival probabilities are random variables with an intricate distribution function. In large homogeneous portfolios of life annuities, value-at-risk or conditional tail expectation of the total yearly payout of the company are approximately equal to the corresponding quantities involving random survival probabilities. This paper aims to derive some bounds in the increasing convex (or stop-loss) sense on these random survival probabilities. These bounds are obtained with the help of comonotonic upper and lower bounds on sums of correlated random variables.     

Characterizing mutual exclusivity as the strongest negative multivariate dependence structure

Mutual exclusivity is an extreme negative dependence structure that was first proposed and studied in Dhaene and Denuit (1999) in the context of insurance risks. In this article, we revisit this notion and present versatile characterizations of mutually exclusive random vectors via their pairwise counter-monotonic behaviour, minimal convex sum property, distributional representation and the characteristic function of the sum of their components. These characterizations highlight the role of mutual exclusivity in generalizing counter-monotonicity as the strongest negative dependence structure in a multi-dimensional setting.     

Risk measures with comonotonic subadditivity or convexity and respecting stochastic orders

This paper proposes some new classes of risk measures, which are not only comonotonic subadditive or convex, but also respect the (first) stochastic dominance or stop-loss order. We give their representations in terms of Choquet integrals w.r.t. distorted probabilities, and show that if the physical probability is atomless then a comonotonic subadditive (resp. convex) risk measure respecting stop-loss order is in fact a law-invariant coherent (resp. convex) risk measure.     

A new proof of Cheung’s characterization of comonotonicity

It is well known that if a random vector with given marginal distributions is comonotonic, it has the largest sum in the sense of the convex order. Cheung (2008) proved that the converse of this assertion is also true, provided that all marginal distribution functions are continuous and that the underlying probability space is atomless. This continuity assumption on the marginals was removed by Cheung (2010). In this short note, we give a new and simple proof of Cheung’s result without the assumption that the underlying probability space is atomless.     

A note on convex risk statistic

By weakening the comonotonic subadditivity axiom, we give the definition of the comonotonic convex risk statistic. Motivated by Ahmed et al. (2008) [1], we establish the representation results for the comonotonic convex risk statistics and the law-invariance convex risk statistics by using the convex analysis.     

Risk measures with comonotonic subadditivity or convexity and respecting stochastic orders

This paper proposes some new classes of risk measures, which are not only comonotonic subadditive or convex, but also respect the (first) stochastic dominance or stop-loss order. We give their representations in terms of Choquet integrals w.r.t. distorted probabilities, and show that if the physical probability is atomless then a comonotonic subadditive (resp. convex) risk measure respecting stop-loss order is in fact a law-invariant coherent (resp. convex) risk measure.     

Risk measures with comonotonic subadditivity or convexity on product spaces

In this paper, by an axiomatic approach, we propose the concepts of comonotonic subadditivity and comonotonic convex risk measures for portfolios, which are extensions of the ones introduced by Song and Yan(2006)Representation results for these new introduced risk measures for portfolios are given in terms of Choquet integralsLinks of these newly introduced risk measures to multi-period comonotonic risk measures are representedFinally, applications of the newly introduced comonotonic coherent risk measures to capital allocations are provided.     

An overview of representation theorems for static risk measures

In this paper, we give an overview of representation theorems for various static risk measures: coherent or convex risk measures, risk measures with comonotonic subadditivity or convexity, law-invariant coherent or convex risk measures, risk measures with comonotonic subadditivity or convexity and respecting stochastic orders. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10571167), National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No. 2007CB814902), and Science Fund for Creative Research Groups (Grant No. 10721101)