Extremal correlation coefficient for functional data

Abstract We propose a coefficient that measures extremal dependence in paired samples of functions. It has properties similar to the Pearson correlation, but differs in two significant ways: (i) it is designed to measure dependence between curves; and (ii) it focuses only on extreme curves. The new coefficient is derived within the framework of regular variation in Banach spaces. A consistent estimator is proposed and justified by an asymptotic analysis and a simulation study. The usefulness of the new coefficient is illustrated using financial and climate functional data.