The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive simulation study on the finite sample properties of minimum-distance and maximum-likelihood estimators for bivariate and multivariate parametric copulas. For five popular parametric copulas, classical maximum-likelihood is compared to a...

We propose the use of nonparametric Bernstein copulas as bivariate pair-copulas in high-dimensional vine models. The resulting smooth and nonparametric vine copulas completely obviate the error-prone need for choosing the pair-copulas from parametric copula families. By means of a simulation...

We propose to model the joint distribution of bid-ask spreads and log returns of a stock portfolio by using Autoregressive Conditional Double Poisson and GARCH processes for the marginals and vine copulas for the dependence structure. By estimating the joint multivariate distribution of both...

This paper analyzes the systemic risk effects of bank mergers to test the "concentration-fragility" hypothesis. We use the marginal expected shortfall as well as the lower tail dependence between a bank's stock returns and a relevant bank sector index to capture the merger-related change in an...

Are some insurers relevant for the stability of the financial system? And if yes, what firm fundamentals and aspects of insurers' business models cause them to destabilize an entire financial sector? We find that several insurers did indeed contribute significantly to the instability of the U.S....

We analyze the determinants of the contribution of international banks to both global and local systemic risk during prominent financial crises. We find no empirical evidence supporting the hypotheses that bank size, leverage, non-interest income or the quality of the bank's credit portfolio are...

Abstract: Using a unique sample of 425 bank mergers in the US announced between 2000 and 2008 this paper provides clear evidence supporting the collusion and productive efficiency hypotheses. By analyzing 425 bank mergers and a total of 1112 possible rivals, our analysis shows that the majority...

In this paper, the optimality of bivariate copula-VaR models and the usefulness of several goodness-of-fit tests for copulas are analysed in a comprehensive empirical study using data for stocks, commodities and FX futures. In particular, I try to answer two questions: (1) Which parametric...