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In probability theory and statistics, kurtosis (from Greek: κυρτός, kyrtos or kurtos, meaning "curved, arching") refers to the degree of “tailedness” in the probability distribution of a real-valued random variable. Similar to skewness, kurtosis provides insight into specific characteristics of a distribution. Various methods exist ...
The sample skewness g 1 and kurtosis g 2 are both asymptotically normal. However, the rate of their convergence to the distribution limit is frustratingly slow, especially for g 2 . For example even with n = 5000 observations the sample kurtosis g 2 has both the skewness and the kurtosis of approximately 0.3, which is not negligible.
Considerations of the shape of a distribution arise in statistical data analysis, where simple quantitative descriptive statistics and plotting techniques such as histograms can lead on to the selection of a particular family of distributions for modelling purposes. The normal distribution, often called the "bell curve" Exponential distribution
For instance, the Laplace distribution has a kurtosis of 6 and weak exponential tails, but a larger 4th L-moment ratio than e.g. the student-t distribution with d.f.=3, which has an infinite kurtosis and much heavier tails.
Normal probability plot of a sample from a right-skewed distribution – it has an inverted C shape. Histogram of a sample from a right-skewed distribution – it looks unimodal and skewed right. This is a sample of size 50 from a uniform distribution, plotted as both a histogram, and a normal probability plot.
Most simply, they can be estimated in terms of the higher moments, using the method of moments, as in the skewness (3rd moment) or kurtosis (4th moment), if the higher moments are defined and finite. Estimators of shape often involve higher-order statistics (non-linear functions of the data), as in the higher moments, but linear estimators also ...
where is the beta function, is the location parameter, > is the scale parameter, < < is the skewness parameter, and > and > are the parameters that control the kurtosis. and are not parameters, but functions of the other parameters that are used here to scale or shift the distribution appropriately to match the various parameterizations of this distribution.
The first is the square of the skewness: β 1 = γ 1 where γ 1 is the skewness, or third standardized moment. The second is the traditional kurtosis, or fourth standardized moment: β 2 = γ 2 + 3. (Modern treatments define kurtosis γ 2 in terms of cumulants instead of moments, so that for a normal distribution we have γ 2 = 0 and β 2 = 3.