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Mar 17

Examples of distribution functions

category: AP Stats and Business Stats, Dougherty Introduction to Econometrics, EC2020, EC2020 Elements of econometrics, Econometrics, The College Board No Comments

Examples of distribution functions: the first two are used in binary choice models, the third one is applied in maximum likelihood.

Example 1. Distribution function of a normal variable

The standard normal distribution z is defined by its probability density

p_z(x)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}\exp(-\frac{x^2}{2}).

It is nonnegative and integrates to 1 (the proof of this fact is not elementary). Going from density function to distribution function gives us the distribution function (cdf) of the standard normal:

F_z(x)=\int_{-\infty}^xp_z(t)dt, for all real x.

Example 2. The logistic distribution

Here we go from distribution function to density function.

Consider the function

F(x)=\frac{1}{1+e^{-x}}.

It's easy to check that it has the three characteristic properties of a distribution function: the limits at the right and left infinities and monotonicity.

1. When x\rightarrow\infty, 1+e^{-x} goes to 1, so F(x) tends to 1.

2. If x\rightarrow -\infty, 1+e^{-x} goes to +\infty, and F(x) tends to 0.

3. Finally, to check monotonicity, we can use the following sufficient condition: a function is increasing where its derivative is positive. (From the Newton-Leibniz formula f(x_2)=f(x_1)+\int_{x_1}^{x_2}f'(t)dt we see that positivity of the derivative and {x_2}>x_1 imply f(x_2)>f(x_1)). The derivative

(1) F'(x)=\frac{e^{-x}}{(1+e^{-x})^2}

is positive, so F(x) is increasing.

Thus, F is a distribution function, and it generates a density (1).

Example 3. Distribution function and density of a discrete variable

The distribution function concept applies to all random variables, both discrete and continuous. For discrete variables, the distribution function is not continuous as in Figure 1 here; it has jumps at points that have a positive probability attached. We illustrate this using a Bernoulli variable B such that P(B=0)=0.4 and P(B=1)=0.6.

  1. For x<0 we have F_B(x)=P(B\le x)=0.
  2. For 0\le x<1 we have F_B(x)=P(B=0)+P(0<B\le x)=0.4.
  3. Finally, F_B(x)=P(B=0)+P(B=1)+P(1<B\le x)=1 for 1\le x<\infty.

This leads us to Figure 1.

Figure 1. Distribution function of the Bernoulli variable

Now consider B such that P(B=1)=p and P(B=0)=1-p. The analog of the density function for Bernoulli looks like this:

(2) p(x)=p^x(1-p)^{1-x}, for x=0,1.

To understand this equation, check that p(1)=p and p(0)=1-p. In Math, there are many tricks like this.

Remark. For continuous random variables, the value of the density at a fixed point means nothing (in particular, it can be larger than 1). It is its integral that has probabilistic meaning. For (2) the value of the density at a fixed point IS probability.

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