Error bounds in approximations of random sums using gamma-type operators

In this work we deal with approximations of compound distributions, that is, distribution functions of random sums. More specifically, we obtain a discrete compound distribution by replacing each summand in the initial random sum by a discrete random variable whose probability mass function is related to a well-known inversion formula for Laplace transforms [cf. Feller, W., 1971. An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications, vol. II, second edn. Wiley, New York]. Our aim is to show the advantages that this method has in the context of compound distributions. In particular we give accurate error bounds for the distance between the initial random sum and its approximation when the individual summands are mixtures of gamma distributions.     

An extension of Goldie's result and further results in infinite divisibility

Summary It is shown that gamma random variables satisfy a certain factorisation property. Using this property, Goldie's result on mixtures of the exponential distributions is extended. The note also establishes that the generalized inverse Gaussian distribution and the generalized hyperbolic distribution considered by Barndorff-Nielsen and Halgreen (1977) are indeed self-decomposable.     

Near-exact distributions for the independence and sphericity likelihood ratio test statistics

In this paper we show how, based on a decomposition of the likelihood ratio test for sphericity into two independent tests and a suitably developed decomposition of the characteristic function of the logarithm of the likelihood ratio test statistic to test independence in a set of variates, we may obtain extremely well-fitting near-exact distributions for both test statistics. Since both test statistics have the distribution of the product of independent Beta random variables, it is possible to obtain near-exact distributions for both statistics in the form of Generalized Near-Integer Gamma distributions or mixtures of these distributions. For the independence test statistic, numerical studies and comparisons with asymptotic distributions proposed by other authors show the extremely high accuracy of the near-exact distributions developed as approximations to the exact distribution. Concerning the sphericity test statistic, comparisons with formerly developed near-exact distributions show the advantages of these new near-exact distributions.     

Bounds of the accuracy of the normal approximation to the distributions of random sums under relaxed moment conditions<Superscript>∗</Superscript>

We improve bounds of accuracy of the normal approximation to the distribution of a sum of independent random variables under relaxed moment conditions, in particular, under the absence of moments of orders higher than the second. We extend these results to Poisson binomial, binomial, and Poisson random sums. Under the same conditions, we obtain bounds for the accuracy of approximation of the distributions of mixed Poisson random sums by the corresponding limit law. In particular, we construct these bounds for the accuracy of approximation of the distributions of geometric, negative binomial, and Poisson-inverse gamma (Sichel) random sums by the Laplace, variance gamma, and Student distributions, respectively.     

The block sphericity test—exact and near‐exact distributions for the likelihood ratio statistic

Using a suitable decomposition of the null hypothesis of the sphericity test for several blocks of variables, into a sequence of conditionally independent null hypotheses, we show that it is possible to obtain the expressions for the likelihood ratio test statistic, for its hth null moment, and for the characteristic function of its logarithm. The exact distribution of the logarithm of the likelihood ratio test statistic is obtained in the form of a sum of a generalized integer gamma distribution with the sum of a given number of independent logbeta distributions, taking the form of a single generalized integer gamma distribution when each set of variables has two variables. The development of near‐exact distributions arises, from the previous decomposition of the null hypothesis and from the consequent‐induced factorization of the characteristic function, as a natural and practical way to approximate the exact distribution of the test statistic. A measure based on the exact and approximating characteristic functions, which gives an upper bound on the distance between the corresponding distribution functions, is used to assess the quality of the near‐exact distributions proposed and to compare them with an asymptotic approximation on the basis of Box's method. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moment-Based Approximations of Distributions Using Mixtures: Theory and Applications

There are a number of cases where the moments of a distribution are easily obtained, but theoretical distributions are not available in closed form. This paper shows how to use moment methods to approximate a theoretical univariate distribution with mixtures of known distributions. The methods are illustrated with gamma mixtures. It is shown that for a certain class of mixture distributions, which include the normal and gamma mixture families, one can solve for a p-point mixing distribution such that the corresponding mixture has exactly the same first 2p moments as the targeted univariate distribution. The gamma mixture approximation to the distribution of a positive weighted sums of independent central ² variables is demonstrated and compared with a number of existing approximations. The numerical results show that the new approximation is generally superior to these alternatives.     

Random Sums of Independent Indicators and Generalized Reduced Processes

We consider a random sum of independent and identically distributed Bernoulli random variables. We prove several limit theorems for this sum under some natural assumptions. Using these limit theorems a generalized version of the reduced critical Galton-Watson process will be studied. In particular we find limit distributions for the number of individuals in a given generation the number of whose descendants after some generations exceeds a fixed or increasing level. An application to study of the number of “big” trees in a forest containing a random number of trees will also be discussed.     

An algebra of Stein operators

We build upon recent advances on the distributional aspect of Stein's method to propose a novel and flexible technique for computing Stein operators for random variables that can be written as products of independent random variables. We show that our results are valid for a wide class of distributions including normal, beta, variance-gamma, generalized gamma and many more. Our operators are kth degree differential operators with polynomial coefficients; they are straightforward to obtain even when the target density bears no explicit handle. As an application, we derive a new formula for the density of the product of k independent symmetric variance-gamma distributed random variables.     

具有不同分布NA随机变量列的强大数律及应用

给出了具有不同分布的NA随机变量列满足的若干强大数律;作为应用,不仅将独立随机变量的一类强极限定理完整的推广到NA随机变量情形,而且关于NA随机变量的一些已有结果可以作为推论得出.     

On the real accuracy of approximation in the central limit theorem

We consider various approximations in the central limit theorem for distributions of sums of independent random variables. We study how many summands in the normalized sums guarantee the precision 10⁻³ for these approximations. It turns out that for the same distribution but different approximations this number varies from hundreds of thousands to a few tens.     

Conditional independence,conditional mixing and conditional association

Some properties of conditionally independent random variables are studied. Conditional versions of generalized Borel-Cantelli lemma, generalized Kolmogorov’s inequality and generalized Hájek-Rényi inequality are proved. As applications, a conditional version of the strong law of large numbers for conditionally independent random variables and a conditional version of the Kolmogorov’s strong law of large numbers for conditionally independent random variables with identical conditional distributions are obtained. The notions of conditional strong mixing and conditional association for a sequence of random variables are introduced. Some covariance inequalities and a central limit theorem for such sequences are mentioned.     

A first–passage time random walk distribution with five transition probabilities: a generalization of the shifted inverse trinomial

In this paper a univariate discrete distribution, denoted by GIT, is proposed as a generalization of the shifted inverse trinomial distribution, and is formulated as a first-passage time distribution of a modified random walk on the half-plane with five transition probabilities. In contrast, the inverse trinomial arises as a random walk on the real line with three transition probabilities. The probability mass function (pmf) is expressible in terms of the Gauss hypergeometric function and this offers computational advantage due to its recurrence formula. The descending factorial moment is also obtained. The GIT contains twenty-two possible distributions in total. Special cases include the binomial, negative binomial, shifted negative binomial, shifted inverse binomial or, equivalently, lost-games, and shifted inverse trinomial distributions. A subclass GIT_3,1 is a particular member of Kemp’s class of convolution of pseudo-binomial variables and its properties such as reproductivity, formulation, pmf, moments, index of dispersion, and approximations are studied in detail. Compound or generalized (stopped sum) distributions provide inflated models. The inflated GIT_3,1 extends Minkova’s inflated-parameter binomial and negative binomial. A bivariate model which has the GIT as a marginal distribution is also proposed.     

独立的无界随机变量和的概率不等式

研究了在概率空间(Ω,T,P)上,独立的无界随机变量和尾部概率不等式,提出了一种用切割原始概率空间(Ω,T,P)的新型方法去处理独立的无界随机变量和。给出了独立的无界随机变量和的指数型概率不等式。作为结果的应用,一些有趣的例子被给出。这些例子表明:文中提出的方法和结果对研究独立的无界随机变量和的大样本性质是十分有用的。     

Analysis of a three node queueing network

The three node Jackson queueing network is the simplest acyclic network in which in equilibrium the sojourn times of a customer at each of the nodes are dependent. We show that assuming the individual sojourn times are independent provides a good approximation to the total sojourn time. This is done by simulating the network and showing that the sojourn times generally pass a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test as having come from the approximating distribution. Since the sum of dependent random variables may have the same distribution as the sum of independent random variables with the same marginal distributions, it is conceivable that our approximation is exact. However, we numerically compute upper and lower bounds for the distribution of the total sojourn time; these bounds are so close that the approximating distribution lies outside of the bounds. Thus, the bounds are accurate enough to distinguish between the two distributions even though the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test generally cannot.     

NA随机变量列一类强大数律的充分必要条件

本文给出了具有不同分布NA随机变量列满足一类强大数律的充分必要条件, 从而将Egorov对独立随机变量列建立的结果推广到NA随机变量情形; 作为应用, 我们还建立了一个新的强大数律.     

Evolution equations for the probabilistic generalization of the Voigt profile function

The spectrum profile that emerges in molecular spectroscopy and atmospheric radiative transfer as the combined effect of Doppler and pressure broadenings is known as the Voigt profile function. Because of its convolution integral representation, the Voigt profile can be interpreted as the probability density function of the sum of two independent random variables with Gaussian density (due to the Doppler effect) and Lorentzian density (due to the pressure effect). Since these densities belong to the class of symmetric Lévy stable distributions, a probabilistic generalization is proposed as the convolution of two arbitrary symmetric Lévy densities. We study the case when the widths of the distributions considered depend on a scale factor τ that is representative of spatial inhomogeneity or temporal non-stationarity. The evolution equations for this probabilistic generalization of the Voigt function are here introduced and interpreted as generalized diffusion equations containing two Riesz space-fractional derivatives, thus classified as space-fractional diffusion equations of double order.     

Bounds and approximations for sums of dependent log-elliptical random variables

Dhaene, Denuit, Goovaerts, Kaas and Vyncke [Dhaene, J., Denuit, M., Goovaerts, M.J., Kaas, R., Vyncke, D., 2002a. The concept of comonotonicity in actuarial science and finance: theory. Insurance Math. Econom. 31 (1), 3-33; Dhaene, J., Denuit, M., Goovaerts, M.J., Kaas, R., Vyncke, D., 2002b. The concept of comonotonicity in actuarial science and finance: Applications. Insurance Math. Econom. 31 (2), 133-161] have studied convex bounds for a sum of dependent random variables and applied these to sums of log-normal random variables. In particular, they have shown how these convex bounds can be used to derive closed-form approximations for several of the risk measures of such a sum. In this paper we investigate to which extent their general results on convex bounds can also be applied to sums of log-elliptical random variables which incorporate sums of log-normals as a special case. Firstly, we show that unlike the log-normal case, for general sums of log-ellipticals the convex lower bound does no longer result in closed-form approximations for the different risk measures. Secondly, we demonstrate how instead the weaker stop-loss order can be used to derive such closed-form approximations. We also present numerical examples to show the accuracy of the proposed approximations.     

Quantiles for finite mixtures of normal distributions

Quantiles for finite mixtures of normal distributions are computed. The difference between a linear combination of independent normal random variables and a linear combination of independent normal densities is emphasized.     

关于NA随机变量极限定理的注记

NA随机变量是一包含独立随机变量在内的有广泛应用的随机变量类,本文在一些更弱的条件下,建立了具有不同分布NA随机变量列的强大数律和有界重对数律,进而推广了已有的关于NA随机变量的结果。     

Cycle-transitive comparison of independent random variables

The discrete dice model, previously introduced by the present authors, essentially amounts to the pairwise comparison of a collection of independent discrete random variables that are uniformly distributed on finite integer multisets. This pairwise comparison results in a probabilistic relation that exhibits a particular type of transitivity, called dice-transitivity. In this paper, the discrete dice model is generalized with the purpose of pairwisely comparing independent discrete or continuous random variables with arbitrary probability distributions. It is shown that the probabilistic relation generated by a collection of arbitrary independent random variables is still dice-transitive. Interestingly, this probabilistic relation can be seen as a graded alternative to the concept of stochastic dominance. Furthermore, when the marginal distributions of the random variables belong to the same parametric family of distributions, the probabilistic relation exhibits interesting types of isostochastic transitivity, such as multiplicative transitivity. Finally, the probabilistic relation generated by a collection of independent normal random variables is proven to be moderately stochastic transitive.