Conditional Tail Expectation Risk Measure Research Articles

Can a regulatory risk measure induce profit-maximizing risk capital allocations? The case of conditional tail expectation

Risk capital allocations (RCAs) are an important tool in quantitative risk management, where they are utilized to, e.g., gauge the profitability of distinct business units, determine the price of a new product, and conduct the marginal economic capital analysis. Nevertheless, the notion of RCA has been living in the shadow of another, closely related notion, of risk measure (RM) in the sense that the latter notion often shapes the fashion in which the former notion is implemented. In fact, as the majority of the RCAs known nowadays are induced by RMs, the popularity of the two are apparently very much correlated. As a result, it is the RCA that is induced by the Conditional Tail Expectation (CTE) RM that has arguably prevailed in scholarly literature and applications. Admittedly, the CTE RM is a sound mathematical object and an important regulatory RM, but its appropriateness is controversial in, e.g., profitability analysis and pricing. In this paper, we address the question as to whether or not the RCA induced by the CTE RM may concur with alternatives that arise from the context of profit maximization. More specifically, we provide exhaustive description of all those probabilistic model settings, in which the mathematical and regulatory CTE RM may also reflect the risk perception of a profit-maximizing insurer.

Some Results on the Risk Capital Allocation Rule Induced by the Conditional Tail Expectation Risk Measure

Risk capital allocations (RCAs) are an important tool in quantitative risk management, where they are utilized to, e.g., gauge the profitability of distinct business units, determine the price of a new product, and conduct the marginal economic capital analysis. Nevertheless, the notion of RCA has been living in the shadow of another, closely related notion, of risk measure (RM) in the sense that the latter notion often shapes the fashion in which the former notion is implemented. In fact, as the majority of the RCAs known nowadays are induced by RMs, the popularity of the two are apparently very much correlated. As a result, it is the RCA that is induced by the Conditional Tail Expectation (CTE) RM that has arguably prevailed in scholarly literature and applications. Admittedly, the CTE RM is a sound mathematical object and an important regulatory RM, but its appropriateness is controversial in, e.g., profitability analysis and pricing. In this paper, we address the question as to whether or not the RCA induced by the CTE RM may concur with alternatives that arise from the context of profit maximization. More specifically, we provide exhaustive description of all those probabilistic model settings, in which the mathematical and regulatory CTE RM may also reflect the risk perception of a profit-maximizing insurer.

Efficient Nested Simulation for Conditional Tail Expectation of Variable Annuities

Monte Carlo simulations—in particular, nested Monte Carlo simulations—are commonly used in variable annuity (VA) risk modeling. However, the computational burden associated with nested simulations is substantial. We propose an Importance-Allocated Nested Simulation (IANS) method to reduce the computational burden, using a two-stage process. The first stage uses a low-cost analytic proxy to identify the tail scenarios most likely to contribute to the Conditional Tail Expectation risk measure. In the second stage we allocate the entire inner simulation computational budget to the scenarios identified in the first stage. Our numerical experiments show that, in the VA context, IANS can be up to 30 times more efficient than a standard Monte Carlo experiment, measured by relative mean squared errors, when both are given the same computational budget.

Quantitative modeling of risk management strategies: Stochastic reserving and hedging of variable annuity guaranteed benefits

Variable annuities are enhanced life insurance products that offer policyholders participation in equity investment with minimum return guarantees. There are two well-established risk management strategies in practice for variable annuity guaranteed benefits, namely, (1) stochastic reserving based on risk measures such as value-at-risk (VaR) and conditional-tail-expectation (CTE); (2) dynamic hedging using exchange-traded derivatives. The latter is increasingly more popular than the former, due to a common perception of its low cost. While both have been extensively used in the insurance industry, scarce academic literature has been written on the comparison of the two approaches. This paper presents a quantitative framework in which two risk management strategies are mathematically formulated and where the basis for decision making can be determined analytically. Besides, the paper proposes dynamic hedging of net liabilities as a more effective and cost-saving alternative to the common practice of dynamic hedging of gross liabilities. The finding of this paper does not support the general perception that dynamic hedging is always more affordable than stochastic reserving, although in many cases it is with the CTE risk measure.

Risk measure estimation under two component mixture models with trimmed data

ABSTRACTSeveral two component mixture models from the transformed gamma and transformed beta families are developed to assess risk performance. Their common statistical properties are given and applications to real insurance loss data are shown. A new data trimming approach for parameter estimation is proposed using the maximum likelihood estimation method. Assessment with respect to Value-at-Risk and Conditional Tail Expectation risk measures are presented. Of all the models examined, the mixture of inverse transformed gamma-Burr distributions consistently provides good results in terms of goodness-of-fit and risk estimation in the context of the Danish fire loss data.

Estimation of quantile oriented sensitivity indices

This paper concerns quantile oriented sensitivity analysis (qosa). We rewrite the corresponding indices using the Conditional Tail Expectation risk measure. Then, we use this new expression to built estimators of qosa indices.

An asymptotic characterization of hidden tail credit risk with actuarial applications

In this paper we study the tail risk of a properly diversified credit portfolio under a latent risk factor model. The usual perception is that if the diversification leads to asymptotic independence among the risk factors, then, because of the relatively low probability of simultaneous defaults, the tail risk of the entire portfolio is negligible. However, we point out that in fact there may be substantial tail risk hidden in this situation. We use a conditional tail probability of the portfolio loss to quantify the hidden tail risk, and then provide an asymptotic characterization for the risk under a hidden regular variation structure assumed for the risk factors. We also propose applications of the characterization to the determination and allocation of related insurance risk capital, based on the Conditional Tail Expectation risk measure. To understand the impact of dependence on the quantities of interest, we study two special cases where the risk factors have a Gaussian copula or an Archimedean copula. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the results.

Optimal Limited Stop-Loss Reinsurance under VaR, TVaR, and CTE Risk Measures

This paper aims to provide a practical optimal reinsurance scheme under particular conditions, with the goal of minimizing total insurer risk. Excess of loss reinsurance is an essential part of the reinsurance market, but the concept of stop-loss reinsurance tends to be unpopular. We study the purchase arrangement of optimal reinsurance, under which the liability of reinsurers is limited by the excess of loss ratio, in order to generate a reinsurance scheme that is closer to reality. We explore the optimization of limited stop-loss reinsurance under three risk measures: value at risk (VaR), tail value at risk (TVaR), and conditional tail expectation (CTE). We analyze the topic from the following aspects: (1) finding the optimal franchise point with limited stop-loss coverage, (2) finding the optimal limited stop-loss coverage within a certain franchise point, and (3) finding the optimal franchise point with limited stop-loss coverage. We provide several numerical examples. Our results show the existence of optimal values and locations under the various constraint conditions.

Optimality of general reinsurance contracts under CTE risk measure

By formulating a constrained optimization model, we address the problem of optimal reinsurance design using the criterion of minimizing the conditional tail expectation (CTE) risk measure of the insurer’s total risk. For completeness, we analyze the optimal reinsurance model under both binding and unbinding reinsurance premium constraints. By resorting to the Lagrangian approach based on the concept of directional derivative, explicit and analytical optimal solutions are obtained in each case under some mild conditions. We show that pure stop-loss ceded loss function is always optimal. More interestingly, we demonstrate that ceded loss functions, that are not always non-decreasing, could be optimal. We also show that, in some cases, it is optimal to exhaust the entire reinsurance premium budget to determine the optimal reinsurance, while in other cases, it is rational to spend less than the prescribed reinsurance premium budget.

Estimating the Variance of Bootstrapped Risk Measures

AbstractIn Kim and Hardy (2007) the exact bootstrap was used to estimate certain risk measures including Value at Risk and the Conditional Tail Expectation. In this paper we continue this work by deriving the influence function of the exact-bootstrapped quantile risk measure. We can use the influence function to estimate the variance of the exact-bootstrap risk measure. We then extend the result to the L-estimator class, which includes the conditional tail expectation risk measure. The resulting formula provides an alternative way to estimate the variance of the bootstrapped risk measures, or the whole L-estimator class in an analytic form. A simulation study shows that this new method is comparable to the ordinary resampling-based bootstrap method, with the advantages of an analytic approach.

Modelling long-term investment returns via Bayesian infinite mixture time series models

This paper introduces the class of Bayesian infinite mixture time series models first proposed in Lau & So (2004) for modelling long-term investment returns. It is a flexible class of time series models and provides a flexible way to incorporate full information contained in all autoregressive components with various orders by utilizing the idea of Bayesian averaging or mixing. We adopt a Bayesian sampling scheme based on a weighted Chinese restaurant process for generating partitions of investment returns to estimate the Bayesian infinite mixture time series models. Instead of using the point estimates, as in the classical or non-Bayesian approach, the estimation in this paper is performed by the full Bayesian approach, utilizing the idea of Bayesian averaging to incorporate all information contained in the posterior distributions of the random parameters. This provides a natural way to incorporate model risk or uncertainty. The proposed models can also be used to perform clustering of investment returns and detect outliers of returns. We employ the monthly data from the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 (TSE 300) indices to illustrate the implementation of our models and compare the simulated results from the estimated models with the empirical characteristics of the TSE 300 data. We apply the Bayesian predictive distribution of the logarithmic returns obtained by the Bayesian averaging or mixing to evaluate the quantile-based and conditional tail expectation risk measures for segregated fund contracts via stochastic simulation. We compare the risk measures evaluated from our models with those from some well-known and important models in the literature, and highlight some features that can be obtained from our models.

Skewed bivariate models and nonparametric estimation for the CTE risk measure

In this paper, we illustrate the use of the Conditional Tail Expectation (CTE) risk measure on a set of bivariate real data consisting of two types of auto insurance claim costs. Several continuous bivariate distributions (normal, lognormal, skew-normal with the alternative log-skew-normal) are fitted to the data. Besides, a bivariate nonparametric transformed kernel estimation is presented. CTE formulas are given for all these, and numerical results on the real data are discussed and compared.

Optimal reinsurance under VaR and CTE risk measures

Let X denote the loss initially assumed by an insurer. In a reinsurance design, the insurer cedes part of its loss, say f ( X ) , to a reinsurer, and thus the insurer retains a loss I f ( X ) = X − f ( X ) . In return, the insurer is obligated to compensate the reinsurer for undertaking the risk by paying the reinsurance premium. Hence, the sum of the retained loss and the reinsurance premium can be interpreted as the total cost of managing the risk in the presence of reinsurance. Based on a technique used in [Müller, A., Stoyan, D., 2002. Comparison Methods for Stochastic Models and Risks. In: Willey Series in Probability and Statistics] and motivated by [Cai J., Tan K.S., 2007. Optimal retention for a stop-loss reinsurance under the VaR and CTE risk measure. Astin Bull. 37 (1), 93–112] on using the value-at-risk (VaR) and the conditional tail expectation (CTE) of an insurer’s total cost as the criteria for determining the optimal reinsurance, this paper derives the optimal ceded loss functions in a class of increasing convex ceded loss functions. The results indicate that depending on the risk measure’s level of confidence and the safety loading for the reinsurance premium, the optimal reinsurance can be in the forms of stop-loss, quota-share, or change-loss.

Quantifying and Correcting the Bias in Estimated Risk Measures

In this paper we explore the bias in the estimation of the Value at Risk and Conditional Tail Expectation risk measures using Monte Carlo simulation. We assess the use of bootstrap techniques to correct the bias for a number of different examples. In the case of the Conditional Tail Expectation, we show that application of the exact bootstrap can improve estimates, and we develop a practical guideline for assessing when to use the exact bootstrap.

Quantifying and Correcting the Bias in Estimated Risk Measures

In this paper we explore the bias in the estimation of the Value at Risk and Conditional Tail Expectation risk measures using Monte Carlo simulation. We assess the use of bootstrap techniques to correct the bias for a number of different examples. In the case of the Conditional Tail Expectation, we show that application of the exact bootstrap can improve estimates, and we develop a practical guideline for assessing when to use the exact bootstrap.

Optimal Retention for a Stop-loss Reinsurance Under the VaR and CTE Risk Measures

We propose practical solutions for the determination of optimal retentions in a stop-loss reinsurance. We develop two new optimization criteria for deriving the optimal retentions by, respectively, minimizing the value-at-risk (VaR) and the conditional tail expectation (CTE) of the total risks of an insurer. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the optimal retentions for two risk models: individual risk model and collective risk model. The resulting optimal solution of our optimization criterion has several important characteristics: (i) the optimal retention has a very simple analytic form; (ii) the optimal retention depends only on the assumed loss distribution and the reinsurer’s safety loading factor; (iii) the CTE criterion is more applicable than the VaR criterion in the sense that the optimal condition for the former is less restrictive than the latter; (iv) if optimal solutions exist, then both VaR- and CTE-based optimization criteria yield the same optimal retentions. In terms of applications, we extend the results to the individual risk models with dependent risks and use multivariate phase type distribution, multivariate Pareto distribution and multivariate Bernoulli distribution to illustrate the effect of dependence on optimal retentions. We also use the compound Poisson distribution and the compound negative binomial distribution to illustrate the optimal retentions in a collective risk model.

Optimal Retention for a Stop-loss Reinsurance Under the VaR and CTE Risk Measures

We propose practical solutions for the determination of optimal retentions in a stop-loss reinsurance. We develop two new optimization criteria for deriving the optimal retentions by, respectively, minimizing the value-at-risk (VaR) and the conditional tail expectation (CTE) of the total risks of an insurer. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the optimal retentions for two risk models: individual risk model and collective risk model. The resulting optimal solution of our optimization criterion has several important characteristics: (i) the optimal retention has a very simple analytic form; (ii) the optimal retention depends only on the assumed loss distribution and the reinsurer’s safety loading factor; (iii) the CTE criterion is more applicable than the VaR criterion in the sense that the optimal condition for the former is less restrictive than the latter; (iv) if optimal solutions exist, then both VaR- and CTE-based optimization criteria yield the same optimal retentions. In terms of applications, we extend the results to the individual risk models with dependent risks and use multivariate phase type distribution, multivariate Pareto distribution and multivariate Bernoulli distribution to illustrate the effect of dependence on optimal retentions. We also use the compound Poisson distribution and the compound negative binomial distribution to illustrate the optimal retentions in a collective risk model.