Comparative Study of the Distributions Used To Model Dispersion
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Date
2012Author
Kipchirchir, IC
Type
PresentationLanguage
enMetadata
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The negative binomial distribution has been widely used and to a lesser extent the Ney-
man Type A distribution, whereas the Polya-Aeppli distribution has received no attention in modeling
overdispersed (clustered) populations. On the other hand, the Poisson distribution is naturally used to
model random populations. The aim of this paper is to carry out a comparative study of the aforemen-
tioned distributions based on index of patchiness, correlation, skewness and kurtosis. The study revealed
that the negative binomial, the Neyman Type A and the Polya-Aeppli distributions are equivalent in de-
scribing dispersion and they have Poisson as a limiting distribution. However, the distributions differ
in terms of skewness and kurtosis, though the Polya-Aeppli is closer to the negative binomial than the
Neyman Type A. Thus, in order to discriminate probability models for over dispersion, an index which
incorporates skewness and kurtosis need to be devised
Citation
Kipchirchir, I. C. (2012). Comparative Study of the Distributions Used To Model Dispersion. In: Eastern Africa Universities Mathematics program (EAUMP - Network Origin, Operation, Achievements the Future and Challenges p. 164Publisher
University of Nairobi