Impact of Chinese Yuan Devaluation on the Dependence Structure: The Archimedean Copula Approach

This paper investigates the linkages of Chinese yuan to other currencies before and after the yuan devaluation on 11 August 2015. Linear regression analysis shows that only a few of the 14 currencies considered are significantly affected by the devaluation. However, the devaluation of Chinese yuan has been associated with larger fluctuations in these currencies and the occurrence of extreme positive and negative returns. The regression method may under estimate the tail dependence between currencies, as financial data are usually non-normally distributed, especially when extreme event occurs. We apply the Archimedean copulas to capture the presence of lower and upper tail dependence between the exchange rate returns of Chinese yuan and the selected currencies, and found dependencies not revealed by the linear regression analysis. The extreme returns after the Chinese yuan devaluation have resulted in higher dependence with the selected currencies. While the dependence structure was dominated by risks due to unusual currency gains before the devaluation, the market responses to large losses and gains have become more symmetric after the devaluation.