Order Statistics and Benford's Law

Fix a base B>1 and let ζ have the standard exponential distribution; the distribution of digits of ζ base B is known to be very close to Benford's law. If there exists a C such that the distribution of digits of C times the elements of some set is the same as that of ζ, we say that set exhib...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Steven J. Miller, Mark J. Nigrini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2008-01-01
Series:International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2008/382948
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849307718085509120
author Steven J. Miller
Mark J. Nigrini
author_facet Steven J. Miller
Mark J. Nigrini
author_sort Steven J. Miller
collection DOAJ
description Fix a base B>1 and let ζ have the standard exponential distribution; the distribution of digits of ζ base B is known to be very close to Benford's law. If there exists a C such that the distribution of digits of C times the elements of some set is the same as that of ζ, we say that set exhibits shifted exponential behavior base B. Let X1,…,XN be i.i.d.r.v. If the Xi's are Unif, then as N→∞ the distribution of the digits of the differences between adjacent order statistics converges to shifted exponential behavior. If instead Xi's come from a compactly supported distribution with uniformly bounded first and second derivatives and a second-order Taylor series expansion at each point, then the distribution of digits of any Nδ consecutive differences and all N−1 normalized differences of the order statistics exhibit shifted exponential behavior. We derive conditions on the probability density which determine whether or not the distribution of the digits of all the unnormalized differences converges to Benford's law, shifted exponential behavior, or oscillates between the two, and show that the Pareto distribution leads to oscillating behavior.
format Article
id doaj-art-1d4116c9ddae4f01ace2a30b19a63f53
institution Kabale University
issn 0161-1712
1687-0425
language English
publishDate 2008-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences
spelling doaj-art-1d4116c9ddae4f01ace2a30b19a63f532025-08-20T03:54:38ZengWileyInternational Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences0161-17121687-04252008-01-01200810.1155/2008/382948382948Order Statistics and Benford's LawSteven J. Miller0Mark J. Nigrini1Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 01267, USAAccounting and Information Systems, School of Business, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ 08628, USAFix a base B>1 and let ζ have the standard exponential distribution; the distribution of digits of ζ base B is known to be very close to Benford's law. If there exists a C such that the distribution of digits of C times the elements of some set is the same as that of ζ, we say that set exhibits shifted exponential behavior base B. Let X1,…,XN be i.i.d.r.v. If the Xi's are Unif, then as N→∞ the distribution of the digits of the differences between adjacent order statistics converges to shifted exponential behavior. If instead Xi's come from a compactly supported distribution with uniformly bounded first and second derivatives and a second-order Taylor series expansion at each point, then the distribution of digits of any Nδ consecutive differences and all N−1 normalized differences of the order statistics exhibit shifted exponential behavior. We derive conditions on the probability density which determine whether or not the distribution of the digits of all the unnormalized differences converges to Benford's law, shifted exponential behavior, or oscillates between the two, and show that the Pareto distribution leads to oscillating behavior.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2008/382948
spellingShingle Steven J. Miller
Mark J. Nigrini
Order Statistics and Benford's Law
International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences
title Order Statistics and Benford's Law
title_full Order Statistics and Benford's Law
title_fullStr Order Statistics and Benford's Law
title_full_unstemmed Order Statistics and Benford's Law
title_short Order Statistics and Benford's Law
title_sort order statistics and benford s law
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2008/382948
work_keys_str_mv AT stevenjmiller orderstatisticsandbenfordslaw
AT markjnigrini orderstatisticsandbenfordslaw