Stochastic dominance and statistical preference for random variables coupled by arbitrary copulas

Abstract

Recently, results have been published showing that first order stochastic dominance implies statistical preference and diff-stochastic dominance, when the copula relating the compared variables is either Archimedean, the product copula, or one of the Fréchet-Hoeffding bounds.In the present paper, we rely on known results on multivariate stochastic orders to extend these results and simplify the proofs. The results are expanded in two directions: First, we show that it suffices for the copula to be symmetric. Second, we reveal that first stochastic dominance entails a wider range of stochastic preferences beyond statistical preference and diff-stochastic dominance.We further analyze whether first stochastic dominance implies statistical preference for the case of asymmetric copulas. We observe that, when at least one of the marginal cumulative distribution functions has no discontinuity jumps, the family of asymmetric copulas for which the implication holds is at least as large as the one for which it does not.