When assets exhibit asymmetric dependence or joint downside risk, diversificationcan fail and financial markets may be prone to systemic risk. We analyze thedependence structure of risk factors in the US economy, using both correlations anda parsimonious set of copulas. We find evidence of...

A central role for economic policy involves reducing the incidence of systemic downturns,when key economic variables experience joint extreme events. In this paper,we empirically analyze such asymmetric dependence using two approaches, correlationsand copulas. We document four findings. First,...

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