Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

A Simpli ed, General Approach to Simulating from Multivariate Copula Functions

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Copulas have become an important analytic tool for characterizing multivariate distributions and dependence. One is often interested in simulating data from copula estimates. The process can be analytically and computationally complex and usually involves steps that are unique to a given parametric copula. We describe an alternative approach that uses \probability{proportional{to{size" (PPS) random sampling with weights formed from the copula likelihood function. The method is exible and can be applied to parametric and nonparametric marginal density estimates. The precision of the simulation can be calibrated by adjusting the density of the multidimensional grid used in the simulation process. The approach is fully transparent to any copula function with continuous random variables. An example evaluates a number of goodness{of{ t criteria and provides strong support for the validity and practicality of the method.

Citation

Goodwin, Barry K. 2012. A Simplified, General Approach to Simulating from Multivariate Copula Functions. In: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington. http://purl.umn.edu/124868.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/42385