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Modeling Multivariate Distributions Using Copulas: Applications In Marketing, Peter J. Danaher, Michael S. Smith

Michael Stanley Smith

In this research we introduce a new class of multivariate probability models to the marketing literature. Known as “copula models”, they have a number of attractive features. First, they permit the combination of any univariate marginal distributions that need not come from the same distributional family. Second, a particular class of copula models, called “elliptical copula”, have the property that they increase in complexity at a much slower rate than existing multivariate probability models as the number of dimensions increase. Third, they are very general, encompassing a number of existing multivariate models, and provide a framework for generating many more. …