Multivariate Self-Exciting Processes with Dependencies

An interactive exploration of MSPD — a unifying framework for modelling contagion, clustering, and cascading risk in finance and insurance.

Hillairet, Peyrat & Réveillac (2026) · Cherkaoui,Hillairet, Peyrat & Réveillac (2026)

Theory

What is an MSPD?

In classical actuarial models, claims arrive independently — each event has no memory of the past. Real risks, especially cyber, don't work this way: one breach triggers others, and the size of an event shapes how likely future events are. MSPDs are built to capture exactly this.

Core idea. An MSPD is a stochastic process defined on a Poisson random measure — a mathematical object that generates events continuously over time, each carrying a random size (mark). What makes MSPDs non-trivial is that the rate at which events occur depends on the full past trajectory, weighted by how large each past event was.

Why a Poisson random measure?

The Poisson random measure N(dk,dt,dθ,dy) is a random cloud of points on a product space. Each point carries four coordinates: a component index k (which dimension of the risk), a time t, a uniform threshold θ, and a mark y (the severity).

The thinning trick is the key mechanism: a point in the cloud becomes a real event only when its threshold satisfies θ ≤ λ(t). Since the intensity λ(t) jumps upward each time an event is accepted, the acceptance probability increases — this is how self-excitation is encoded at the measure level, without needing to keep track of a list of past events explicitly.

The four building blocks

Baseline intensity

The background rate of events in dimension i, in the absence of any past excitation. Can be time-varying to model seasonality or a known trend.

Excitation kernel

How much a past event of size y in dimension k raises the rate in dimension i, as a function of elapsed time. Off-diagonal entries encode cross-contagion between lines of business.

Observation kernel

Determines what the process measures. Set to 1{i=k} to count events, to y for cumulative losses, or to y·e−τt for actualized losses.

Severity mark

The random size attached to each event (claim amount, vulnerability score…). Its distribution enters both the observation and the excitation, creating a frequency–severity dependency absent from standard Hawkes processes.

What the parameters control

Memory length

The decay rate δ in φ governs how long a past event keeps influencing future ones. Small δ = long memory. Power-law alternatives give even heavier tails, relevant for cyber incidents that propagate over months.

Severity feeding frequency

When φi,k(t, y) depends non-trivially on y, a large loss doesn't just count as one event — it contributes proportionally more to future excitation. This breaks the classical independence between N and the mark sequence Yi.

Cross-dimension contagion

Off-diagonal entries φi,k with i ≠ k model spillovers across lines of business or risk types — a ransomware event in one sector triggering claims in another.

Stability condition

The spectral radius of the branching matrix K = ∫φ̄(t)dt must be below 1. If it exceeds 1, each event produces on average more than one offspring and the process explodes — an actuarially non-viable regime.

The matrix encodes self- and cross-excitation. The observation kernel determines what is measured. Marks enter multiplicatively through both.

Available kernels below: Exponential and Erlang-2 . Marks follow distributions.

The explorer and stress-testing tools below let you configure this exact setup — tune μ, α, δ, and the severity distribution to observe how each parameter shapes the trajectory, the intensity path, and the correlation structure.

Time to cook

MSPD Explorer

Configure a -dimensional MSPD step by step. Click on matrix cells to set kernels and parameters. Check "slider" to get a live control.

1 · Setup

d dimension
Mode

2 · Marks

3 · Baseline

4 · Excitation

Click a cell to configure.

5 · Observation

0 = ignore, or .

Dim 1
Dim 2
Ready

Top: Intensities. Middle: Events (dot size = mark). Bottom: Processes .

Analytics

Monte Carlo on the MSPD

Run simulations using the model above (requires fixed maturity). Compare empirical distributions with quantile markers.

Fixed maturity required. Switch the Explorer to "Fixed maturity T" to enable Monte Carlo.
Cyber Application

Stress Testing for Cyber Insurance

A cyber loss model where vulnerability disclosures (homogeneous Poisson of rate ) excite the claims process through exponential kernels.

Cyber model

with claims and vulnerability scores . Vulnerabilities arrive as a homogeneous Poisson process of intensity .

λ₀ baseline 0.50
ρ vuln rate 0.20
δ decay 1.7
θ_C claim rate 1.0
θ_V vuln score rate 0.20
T horizon 40

Scenario builder

Click in the event panel to add events. Set severity and type below.

0 events
Baseline
Stressed
Scenario

Surplus (this run)

ΔL_T
Base #claims
Stress #claims