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The Pareto distribution is a skewed, heavy-tailed distribution that is sometimes used to model the distribution of incomes.
Let be a parameter. Show that the function given below is a distribution function.
The distribution defined by the function in Exercise 1 is called the Pareto distribution with shape parameter , and is named for the economist Vilfredo Pareto.
Show that the probability density function is given by
Sketch the graph of the probability density function . Note that is decreasing, so in particular, the mode occurs at for any . Of course, decreases faster as increases.
In the simulation of the random variable experiment, select the Pareto distribution. Vary the shape parameter and note the shape and location of the density function. For selected values of the parameter, run the simulation 1000 times with an update frequency of 10 and note the apparent convergence of the empirical density to the true density.
Show that the quantile function is
Find the median and the first and third quartiles for the Pareto distribution with shape parameter . Compute the interquartile range.
In the quantile applet, select the Pareto distribution. Vary the shape parameter and note the shape and location of the density function and the distribution function.
The Pareto distribution is a heavy-tailed distribution. Thus, the mean, variance, and other moments are finite only if the shape parameter is sufficiently large.
Suppose that has the Pareto distribution with shape parameter . Show that
Use the result of the previous exercise to show that
In the random variable experiment, select the Pareto distribution. Vary the parameters and note the shape and location of the mean/standard deviation bar. For each of the following parameter values, run the simulation 1000 times with an update frequency of 10 and note the behavior of the empirical moments:
As with many other distributions, the Pareto distribution is often generalized by adding a scale parameter. Thus, suppose that has the basic Pareto distribution with shape parameter . If , the random variable has the Pareto distribution with shape parameter and scale parameter . Note that takes values in the interval .
Analogies of the results given above follow easily from basic properties of the scale transformation.
Show that the probability density function is
Show that the distribution function is
Show that the quantile function is
Show that the moments are given by
Show that the mean and variance are
Suppose that the income of a certain population has the Pareto distribution with shape parameter 3 and scale parameter 1000.
The following exercise is a restatement of the fact that is a scale parameter.
Suppose that has the Pareto distribution with shape parameter and scale parameter . Show that if then has the Pareto distribution with shape parameter and scale parameter
Suppose that has the basic Pareto distribution with shape parameter . Show that has the beta distribution with left parameter and right parameter 1.