TOPICS
Search

Beta Negative Binomial Distribution


A beta negative binomial distribution is a discrete distribution obtained by mixing a negative binomial distribution with a beta distribution for its success probability p. For positive real numbers alpha, beta, and r, its probability mass function is

 P(k)=(k+r-1; k)(B(alpha+r,beta+k))/(B(alpha,beta))
(1)

for nonnegative integers k, where B(a,b) is the beta function and (k+r-1; k) is a binomial coefficient. For integer r, this models the number of failures before the rth success when p has the beta distribution with parameters alpha and beta.

The mean is

 mu=(rbeta)/(alpha-1)
(2)

for alpha>1, and the variance is

 sigma^2=(rbeta(alpha+beta-1)(alpha+r-1))/((alpha-1)^2(alpha-2))
(3)

for alpha>2.

The distribution is implemented in the Wolfram Language as BetaNegativeBinomialDistribution[alpha, beta, r].


See also

Beta Binomial Distribution, Beta Distribution, Negative Binomial Distribution

Explore with Wolfram|Alpha

References

Wolfram Research. "BetaNegativeBinomialDistribution." https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/BetaNegativeBinomialDistribution.html.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Beta Negative Binomial Distribution." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/BetaNegativeBinomialDistribution.html

Subject classifications