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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 37 No. 5 2013

Systematic stress tests with entropic plausibility constraints

Thomas Breuer1; Imre Csiszár2,3

1 Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences · 2 Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics · 3 Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Stress tests with handpicked scenarios might misrepresent risks either because dangerous scenarios are not considered or because the scenarios considered are too implausible. To overcome these two pitfalls we propose a systematic search for the worst case within a relative entropy ball of sufficiently plausible scenarios. For this purpose we use mixed scenarios, which are risk factor distributions rather than realisations. A Maximum Loss theorem explicitly gives the worst case distribution. The method is illustrated in a number of example applications: linear and quadratic portfolios, stressed default probabilities, stressed correlations, macroeconomic stress tests.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.04.013
Volume
37
Issue
5
Pages
1552-1559
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

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