On the identity of the smallest random variable

Yigal Gerchak*, Qi Ming He

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We compute and analyze the probability that a particular random variable will assume the smallest value among a set of random variables. This work was motivated by wanting to predict the "winner" in R&D and patent "races". Some general results and comparative statistics are provided. For symmetric distributions we derive bounds on the probabilities of interest. We compute the probabilities of who will be the smallest (fastest) for normal, lognormal, Weibull, Pareto, binomial and PH-distributions. We also analyze several models of multivariate exponential distributions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)559-564
Number of pages6
JournalIIE Transactions (Institute of Industrial Engineers)
Volume34
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2002

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