Time series and copula dependency analysis for Eurozone sovereign bond returns

In this article, we analyze the distribution of returns on seven major Eurozone sovereign bonds and their co-movement for the period 2001 to 2011. We investigate five ARMA-GARCH models based on different innovation distributions: Gaussian, Student-t, classical tempered stable, normal tempered stable, and α-stable. For each model, we apply four copula dependence structures: Gaussian, Student-t, skewed Student-t, and multivariate normal tempered stable. Finally, we assess the forecasting performance of these models, and provide a forward-looking measure of the financial crisis of Greece.