An importance sampling algorithm for copula models in insurance

An importance sampling algorithm for copula models is introduced. The method improves Monte Carlo estimators when the functional of interest depends mainly on the behaviour of the underlying random vector when at least one of the components is large. Such problems often arise from dependence models in finance and insurance. The importance sampling framework we propose is general and can be easily implemented for all classes of copula models from which sampling is feasible. We show how the proposal distribution can be optimized to reduce the sampling error. In a case study inspired by a typical multivariate insurance application, we obtain variance reduction factors between 10 and 20 in comparison to standard Monte Carlo estimators.