Fat tails, VaR and subadditivity

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Econometrics
Year: 2013
Volume: 172
Issue: 2
Pages: 283-291

Authors (5)

Daníelsson, Jón (London School of Economics (LS...) Jorgensen, Bjørn N. (not in RePEc) Samorodnitsky, Gennady (not in RePEc) Sarma, Mandira (not in RePEc) de Vries, Casper G. (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.804 = (α=2.01 / 5 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Financial institutions rely heavily on Value-at-Risk (VaR) as a risk measure, even though it is not globally subadditive. First, we theoretically show that the VaR portfolio measure is subadditive in the relevant tail region if asset returns are multivariate regularly varying, thus allowing for dependent returns. Second, we note that VaR estimated from historical simulations may lead to violations of subadditivity. This upset of the theoretical VaR subadditivity in the tail arises because the coarseness of the empirical distribution can affect the apparent fatness of the tails. Finally, we document a dramatic reduction in the frequency of subadditivity violations, by using semi-parametric extreme value techniques for VaR estimation instead of historical simulations.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:econom:v:172:y:2013:i:2:p:283-291
Journal Field
Econometrics
Author Count
5
Added to Database
2026-01-25