By introducing a weight function into the density power divergence, we develop a new class of robust and smooth estimators for the tail index of Pareto-type distributions, offering improved efficiency in the presence of outliers. These estimators can be viewed as a robust generalization of both weighted least squares and kernel-based tail index estimators. We establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed class. A simulation study is conducted to assess their finite-sample performance in comparison with existing methods.
We derive a closed-form solution for the Kullback-Leibler divergence between two Fréchet extreme-value distributions. The resulting expression is rather simple and involves the Euler-Mascheroni constant.
On the basis of Nelson-Aalen nonparametric estimator of the cumulative distribution function, we provide a weak approximation to tail product-limit process for randomly right-censored heavy-tailed data. In this context, a new consistent reduced-bias estimator of the extreme value index is introduced and its asymptotic normality is established only by assuming the second-order regular variation of the underlying distribution function. A simulation study shows that the newly proposed estimator performs better than the existing ones.
We revisit the model of heteroscedastic extremes initially introduced by Einmahl et al. (JRSSB, 2016) to describe the evolution of a non stationary sequence whose extremes evolve over time and adapt it into a general extreme quantile regression framework. We provide estimates for the extreme value index and the integrated skedasis function and prove their asymptotic normality. Our results are quite similar to those developed for heteroscedastic extremes but with a different proof approach emphasizing coupling arguments. We also propose a pointwise estimator of the skedasis function and a Weiss…
This paper presents two results concerning uniform confidence intervals for the tail index and the extreme quantile. First, we show that it is impossible to construct a length-optimal confidence interval satisfying the correct uniform coverage over a local non-parametric family of tail distributions. Second, in light of the impossibility result, we construct honest confidence intervals that are uniformly valid by incorporating the worst-case bias in the local non-parametric family. The proposed method is applied to simulated data and a real data set of National Vital Statistics from National C…
We make use of the empirical process theory to approximate the adapted Hill estimator, for censored data, in terms of Gaussian processes. Then, we derive its asymptotic normality, only under the usual second-order condition of regular variation. Our methodology allows to relax the assumptions, made in Einmahl, Fils-Villetard and Guillou(2008), on the heavy-tailed distribution functions and the sample fraction of upper order statistics.
A tail empirical process for heavy-tailed and right-censored data is introduced and its Gaussian approximation is established. In this context, a (weighted) new Hill-type estimator for positive extreme value index is proposed and its consistency and asymptotic normality are proved by means of the aforementioned process in the framework of second-order conditions of regular variation. In a comparative simulation study, the newly defined estimator is seen to perform better than the already existing ones in terms of both bias and mean squared error. As a real data example, we apply our estimation…
This work deals with the estimation of the extreme value index and extreme quantiles for heavy tailed data,randomly right truncated by another heavy tailed variable. Under mild assumptions and the condition thatthe truncated variable is less heavy-tailed than the truncating variable, asymptotic normality is proved for bothestimators. The proposed estimator of the extreme value index is an adaptation of the Hill estimator, in thenatural form of a Lynden-Bell integral. Simulations illustrate the quality of the estimators under a variety ofsituations.
Whether an extreme observation is an outlier or not, depends strongly on the corresponding tail behaviour of the underlying distribution. We develop an automatic, data-driven method to identify extreme tail behaviour that deviates from the intermediate and central characteristics. This allows for detecting extreme outliers or sets of extreme data that show less spread than the bulk of the data. To this end we extend a testing method proposed in Bhattacharya et al 2019 for the specific case of heavy tailed models, to all max-domains of attraction. Consequently we propose a tail-adjusted boxplot…
Consider $n$ i.i.d. random vectors on $\mathbb{R}^2$, with unknown, common distribution function $F$. Under a sharpening of the extreme value condition on $F$, we derive a weighted approximation of the corresponding tail copula process. Then we construct a test to check whether the extreme value condition holds by comparing two estimators of the limiting extreme value distribution, one obtained from the tail copula process and the other obtained by first estimating the spectral measure which is then used as a building block for the limiting extreme value distribution. We derive the limiting di…
In this paper, we propose an estimator of the second-order parameter of randomly right-truncated Pareto-type distributions data and establish its consistency and asymptotic normality. Moreover, we derive an asymptotically unbiased estimator of the tail index and study its asymptotic behaviour. Our considerations are based on a useful Gaussian approximation of the tail product-limit process recently given by Benchaira et al. [Tail product-limit process for truncated data with application to extreme value index estimation. Extremes, 2016; 19: 219-251] and the results of Gomes et al. [Semi-parame…
Extreme U-statistics arise when the kernel of a U-statistic has a high degree but depends only on its arguments through a small number of top order statistics. As the kernel degree of the U-statistic grows to infinity with the sample size, estimators built out of such statistics form an intermediate family in between those constructed in the block maxima and peaks-over-threshold frameworks in extreme value analysis. The asymptotic normality of extreme U-statistics based on location-scale invariant kernels is established. Although the asymptotic variance coincides with the one of the Hájek proj…
In several different fields, there is interest in analyzing the upper or lower tail quantile of the underlying distribution rather than mean or center quantile. However, the investigation of the tail quantile is difficult because of data sparsity. In this paper, we attempt to develop nonparametric quantile regression for the extremal quantile level. In extremal quantile regression, there are two types of technical conditions of the order of convergence of the quantile level: intermediate order or extreme order. For the intermediate order quantile, the ordinary nonparametric estimator is used. …
We consider Stochastic Volatility processes with heavy tails and possible long memory in volatility. We study the limiting conditional distribution of future events given that some present or past event was extreme (i.e. above a level which tends to infinity). Even though extremes of stochastic volatility processes are asymptotically independent (in the sense of extreme value theory), these limiting conditional distributions differ from the i.i.d. case. We introduce estimators of these limiting conditional distributions and study their asymptotic properties. If volatility has long memory, then…
We study a new estimator for the tail index of a distribution in the Frechet domain of attraction that arises naturally by computing subsample maxima. This estimator is equivalent to taking a U-statistic over a Hill estimator with two order statistics. The estimator presents multiple advantages over the Hill estimator. In particular, it has asymptotically smooth sample paths as a function of the threshold k, making it considerably more stable than the Hill estimator. The estimator also admits a simple and intuitive threshold selection rule that does not require fitting a second-order model. Jo…
This paper investigates pooling strategies for tail index and extreme quantile estimation from heavy-tailed data. To fully exploit the information contained in several samples, we present general weighted pooled Hill estimators of the tail index and weighted pooled Weissman estimators of extreme quantiles calculated through a nonstandard geometric averaging scheme. We develop their large-sample asymptotic theory across a fixed number of samples, covering the general framework of heterogeneous sample sizes with different and asymptotically dependent distributions. Our results include optimal ch…
The statistical theory of extremes is extended to observations that are non-stationary and not independent. The non-stationarity over time and space is controlled via the scedasis (tail scale) in the marginal distributions. Spatial dependence stems from multivariate extreme value theory. We establish asymptotic theory for both the weighted sequential tail empirical process and the weighted tail quantile process based on all observations, taken over time and space. The results yield two statistical tests for homoscedasticity in the tail, one in space and one in time. Further, we show that the c…
In this article we show the relationship between the Pareto distribution and the gamma distribution. This shows that the second one, appropriately extended, explains some anomalies that arise in the practical use of extreme value theory. The results are useful to certain phenomena that are fitted by the Pareto distribution but, at the same time, they present a deviation from this law for very large values. Two examples of data analysis with the new model are provided. The first one is on the influence of climate variability on the occurrence of tropical cyclones. The second one on the analysis…
We consider regularly varying random vectors. Our goal is to estimate in a non-parametric way some characteristics related to conditioning on an extreme event, like the tail dependence coefficient. We introduce a quasi-spectral decomposition that allow to improve efficiency of estimators. Asymptotic normality of estimators is based on weak convergence of tail empirical processes. Theoretical results are supported by simulation studies.
Estimation of tail quantities, such as expected shortfall or Value at Risk, is a difficult problem. We show how the theory of nonlinear expectations, in particular the Data-robust expectation introduced in [5], can assist in the quantification of statistical uncertainty for these problems. However, when we are in a heavy-tailed context (in particular when our data are described by a Pareto distribution, as is common in much of extreme value theory), the theory of [5] is insufficient, and requires an additional regularization step which we introduce. By asking whether this regularization is pos…
In this paper, we consider the problem of estimating an extreme quantile of a Weibull tail-distribution. The new extreme quantile estimator has a reduced bias compared to the more classical ones proposed in the literature. It is based on an exponential regression model that was introduced in Diebolt et al. (2008). The asymptotic normality of the extreme quantile estimator is established. We also introduce an adaptive selection procedure to determine the number of upper order statistics to be used. A simulation study as well as an application to a real data set are provided in order to prove th…
The subject of tail estimation for randomly censored data from a heavy tailed distribution receives growing attention, motivated by applications for instance in actuarial statistics. The bias of the available estimators of the extreme value index can be substantial and depends strongly on the amount of censoring. We review the available estimators, propose a new bias reduced estimator, and show how shrinkage estimation can help to keep the MSE under control. A bootstrap algorithm is proposed to construct confidence intervals. We compare these new proposals with the existing estimators through …
Modern statistical analyses often encounter datasets with massive sizes and heavy-tailed distributions. For datasets with massive sizes, traditional estimation methods can hardly be used to estimate the extreme value index directly. To address the issue, we propose here a subsampling-based method. Specifically, multiple subsamples are drawn from the whole dataset by using the technique of simple random subsampling with replacement. Based on each subsample, an approximate maximum likelihood estimator can be computed. The resulting estimators are then averaged to form a more accurate one. Under …
We introduce a trimmed version of the Hill estimator for the index of a heavy-tailed distribution, which is robust to perturbations in the extreme order statistics. In the ideal Pareto setting, the estimator is essentially finite-sample efficient among all unbiased estimators with a given strict upper break-down point. For general heavy-tailed models, we establish the asymptotic normality of the estimator under second order regular variation conditions and also show it is minimax rate-optimal in the Hall class of distributions. We also develop an automatic, data-driven method for the choice of…
We study tail risk dynamics in high-frequency financial markets and their connection with trading activity and market uncertainty. We introduce a dynamic extreme value regression model accommodating both stationary and local unit-root predictors to appropriately capture the time-varying behaviour of the distribution of high-frequency extreme losses. To characterize trading activity and market uncertainty, we consider several volatility and liquidity predictors, and propose a two-step adaptive $L_1$-regularized maximum likelihood estimator to select the most appropriate ones. We establish the o…
In traditional extreme value analysis, the bulk of the data is ignored, and only the tails of the distribution are used for inference. Extreme observations are specified as values that exceed a threshold or as maximum values over distinct blocks of time, and subsequent estimation procedures are motivated by asymptotic theory for extremes of random processes. For environmental data, nonstationary behavior in the bulk of the distribution, such as seasonality or climate change, will also be observed in the tails. To accurately model such nonstationarity, it seems natural to use the entire dataset…
In an earthquake event, the combination of a strong mainshock and damaging aftershocks is often the cause of severe structural damages and/or high death tolls. The objective of this paper is to provide estimation for the probability of such extreme events where the mainshock and the largest aftershocks exceed certain thresholds. Two approaches are illustrated and compared -- a parametric approach based on previously observed stochastic laws in earthquake data, and a non-parametric approach based on bivariate extreme value theory. We analyze the earthquake data from the North Anatolian Fault Zo…
In this work, we provide robust bounds on the tail probabilities and the tail index of heavy-tailed distributions in the context of model misspecification. They are defined as the optimal value when computing the worst-case tail behavior over all models within some neighborhood of the reference model. The choice of the discrepancy between the models used to build this neighborhood plays a crucial role in assessing the size of the asymptotic bounds. We evaluate the robust tail behavior in ambiguity sets based on the Wasserstein distance and Csiszár $f$-divergence and obtain explicit expressions…
We tackle the modeling of threshold exceedances in asymptotically independent stochastic processes by constructions based on Laplace random fields. These are defined as Gaussian random fields scaled with a stochastic variable following an exponential distribution. This framework yields useful asymptotic properties while remaining statistically convenient. Univariate distribution tails are of the half exponential type and are part of the limiting generalized Pareto distributions for threshold exceedances. After normalizing marginal tail distributions in data, a standard Laplace field can be use…
In risk analysis, a global fit that appropriately captures the body and the tail of the distribution of losses is essential. Modelling the whole range of the losses using a standard distribution is usually very hard and often impossible due to the specific characteristics of the body and the tail of the loss distribution. A possible solution is to combine two distributions in a splicing model: a light-tailed distribution for the body which covers light and moderate losses, and a heavy-tailed distribution for the tail to capture large losses. We propose a splicing model with a mixed Erlang (ME)…
Generalized Linear Models for Extremes: Estimation and Inference in High Dimensions
School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学管理学院）；Econometric Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam（伊拉斯姆斯大学鹿特丹计量经济研究所）
A weighted Gaussian approximation to tail product-limit process for Pareto-like distributions of randomly right-truncated data is provided and a new consistent and asymptotically normal estimator of the extreme value index is derived. A simulation study is carried out to evaluate the finite sample behavior of the proposed estimator.
In this work, we focus on some conditional extreme risk measures estimation for elliptical random vectors. In a previous paper, we proposed a methodology to approximate extreme quantiles, based on two extremal parameters. We thus propose some estimators for these parameters, and study their asymptotic properties in the case of heavy-tailed distributions. Thereafter, from these parameters, we construct extreme conditional quantiles estimators, and give their consistency properties. Using recent results on the asymptotic relationship between quantiles and other risk measures, we deduce estimator…
The use of expectiles in risk management has recently gathered remarkable momentum due to their excellent axiomatic and probabilistic properties. In particular, the class of elicitable law-invariant coherent risk measures only consists of expectiles. While the theory of expectile estimation at central levels is substantial, tail estimation at extreme levels has so far only been considered when the tail of the underlying distribution is heavy. This article is the first work to handle the short-tailed setting where the loss (e.g. negative log-returns) distribution of interest is bounded to the r…
We give conditions under which the tail probability of the supremum over unit interval of a Levy process with light tail is equivalent to the tail of the value of the process at the right endpoint.
In a companion paper (McRobie(2013) arxiv:1304.3918), a simple set of `elemental' estimators was presented for the Generalized Pareto tail parameter. Each elemental estimator: involves only three log-spacings; is absolutely unbiased for all values of the tail parameter; is location- and scale-invariant; and is valid for all sample sizes $N$, even as small as $N= 3$. It was suggested that linear combinations of such elementals could then be used to construct efficient unbiased estimators. In this paper, the analogous mathematical approach is taken to the Generalised Extreme Value (GEV) distribu…
This article discusses modelling of the tail of a multivariate distribution function by means of a large deviation principle (LDP), and its application to the estimation of the probability of a multivariate extreme event from a sample of n iid random vectors, with the probability bounded by powers of sample size with exponents below -1. One way to view classical tail limits is as limits of probability ratios. In contrast, the tail LDP provides asymptotic bounds or limits for log-probability ratios. After standardising the marginals to standard exponential, dependence is represented by a homoge…
The probability density quantile (pdQ) carries essential information regarding shape and tail behavior of a location-scale family. Convergence of repeated applications of the pdQ mapping to the uniform distribution is investigated and new fixed point theorems are established. The Kullback-Leibler divergences from uniformity of these pdQs are mapped and found to be ingredients in power functions of optimal tests for uniformity against alternative shapes.
Models for extreme values are generally derived from limit results, which are meant to be good enough approximations when applied to finite samples. Depending on the speed of convergence of the process underlying the data, these approximations may fail to represent subasymptotic features present in the data, and thus may introduce bias. The case of univariate maxima has been widely explored in the literature, a prominent example being the slow convergence to their Gumbel limit of Gaussian maxima, which are better approximated by a negative Weibull distribution at finite levels. In the context …
This paper addresses the problem of estimating, in the presence of random censoring as well as competing risks, the extreme value index of the (sub)-distribution function associated to one particular cause, in the heavy-tail case. Asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator (which has the form of an Aalen-Johansen integral, and is the first estimator proposed in this context) is established. A small simulation study exhibits its performances for finite samples. Estimation of extreme quantiles of the cumulative incidence function is also addressed.
