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The alpha-mixture of survival functions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2019

Majid Asadi*
Affiliation:
University of Isfahan and IPM
Nader Ebrahimi*
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University
Ehsan S. Soofi*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
*
*Postal address: Department of Statistics, University of Isfahan, Isfahan 81744, Iran. Email address: m.asadi@stat.ui.ac.ir
***Postal address: Department of Statistics, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60155, USA. Email address: nebrahimi@niu.edu
****Postal address: Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, PO Box 742, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA. Email address: esoofi@uwm.edu

Abstract

This paper presents a flexible family which we call the $\alpha$ -mixture of survival functions. This family includes the survival mixture, failure rate mixture, models that are stochastically closer to each of these conventional mixtures, and many other models. The $\alpha$ -mixture is endowed by the stochastic order and uniquely possesses a mathematical property known in economics as the constant elasticity of substitution, which provides an interpretation for $\alpha$ . We study failure rate properties of this family and establish closures under monotone failure rates of the mixture’s components. Examples include potential applications for comparing systems.

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
© Applied Probability Trust 2019 

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