Minimizing Geographical Basis Risk of Weather Derivatives Using A Multi-Site Rainfall Model

It is well known that the hedging effectiveness of weather derivatives is interfered by the existence of geographical basis risk, i.e., the deviation of weather conditions at different locations. In this paper, we explore how geographical basis risk of rainfall based derivatives can be reduced by regional diversification. Minimizing geographical basis risk requires knowledge of the joint distribution of rainfall at different locations. For that purpose, we estimate a daily multi-site rainfall model from which optimal portfolio weights are derived. We find that this method allows to reduce geographical basis risk more efficiently than simpler approaches as, for example, inverse distance weighting. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014