How can I calculate $\int^{\infty}_{-\infty}\Phi\left(\frac{w-a}{b}\right)\phi(w)\,\mathrm dw$

Question

Suppose $\phi(\cdot)$ and $\Phi(\cdot)$ are density function and distribution function of the standard normal distribution.

How can one calculate the integral:

$$\int^{\infty}_{-\infty}\Phi\left(\frac{w-a}{b}\right)\phi(w)\,\mathrm dw$$

Answer 1

Let $X$ and $Y$ be independent normal random variables with $X \sim N(a,b^2)$ and $Y$ a standard normal random variable. Then, $$P\{X \leq Y \mid Y = w\} = P\{X \leq w\} = \Phi\left(\frac{w-a}{b}\right).$$ So, using the law of total probability, we get that $$P\{X \leq Y\} = \int_{-\infty}^\infty P\{X \leq Y \mid Y = w\}\phi(w)\,\mathrm dw = \int_{-\infty}^\infty \Phi\left(\frac{w-a}{b}\right)\phi(w)\,\mathrm dw.$$ Now, $P\{X \leq Y\} = P\{X-Y \leq 0\}$ can be expressed in terms of $\Phi(\cdot)$ by noting that $X-Y \sim N(a,b^2+1)$, and thus we get $$\int_{-\infty}^\infty \Phi\left(\frac{w-a}{b}\right)\phi(w)\,\mathrm dw = \Phi\left(\frac{-a}{\sqrt{b^2+1}}\right)$$ which is the same as the result in whuber's answer.

Answer 2

A more conventional notation is

$$y(\mu, \sigma) = \int\Phi\left(\frac{x-\mu}{\sigma}\right)\phi(x) dx = \Phi\left(\frac{-\mu}{\sqrt{1+\sigma^2}}\right).$$

This can be found by differentiating the integral with respect to $\mu$ and $\sigma$, producing elementary integrals which can be expressed in closed form:

$$\frac{\partial y}{\partial \mu}(\mu, \sigma) = -\frac{1}{\sqrt{2 \pi } \sqrt{\sigma ^2+1}}e^{-\frac{1}{2}\frac{\mu ^2}{\sigma ^2+1}},$$

$$\frac{\partial y}{\partial \sigma}(\mu, \sigma) = \frac{\mu\sigma }{\sqrt{2 \pi } \left(\sigma ^2+1\right)^{3/2}}e^{-\frac{1}{2}\frac{\mu ^2}{\sigma ^2+1}}.$$

This system can be integrated, beginning with the initial condition $y(0,1)$ = $\int\Phi(x)\phi(x)dx$ = $1/2$, to obtain the given solution (which is easily checked by differentiation).

Answer 3

Here is another solution: We define \begin{align*} I(\gamma) & =\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\Phi(\xi x+\gamma)\mathcal{N}(x|0,\sigma^{2})dx, \end{align*} which we can evaluate $\gamma=-\xi\mu$ to obtain our desired expression. We know at least one function value of $I(\gamma)$, e.g., $I(0)=0$ due to symmetry. We take the derivative wrt to $\gamma$ \begin{align*} \frac{dI}{d\gamma} & =\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\mathcal{N}((\xi x+\gamma)|0,1)\mathcal{N}(x|0,\sigma^{2})dx\\ & =\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}\exp\left(-\frac{1}{2}\left(\xi x+\gamma\right)^{2}\right)\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\sigma^{2}}}\exp\left(-\frac{x^{2}}{2\sigma^{2}}\right)dx. \end{align*} and complete the square \begin{align*} \left(\xi x+\gamma\right)^{2}+\frac{x^{2}}{\sigma^{2}} & =\underbrace{\left(\xi^{2}+\sigma^{-2}\right)}_{=a}x^{2}+\underbrace{-2\gamma\xi}_{=b}x+\underbrace{\gamma^{2}}_{=c} \\ &=a\left(x-\frac{b}{2a}\right)^{2}+\left(c-\frac{b^{2}}{4a}\right) \left(c-\frac{b^{2}}{4a}\right)\\ & =\gamma^{2}-\frac{4\gamma^{2}\xi^{2}}{4\left(\xi^{2}+\sigma^{-2}\right)}\\ &=\gamma^{2}\left(1-\frac{\xi^{2}}{\xi^{2}+\sigma^{-2}}\right)\\ &=\gamma^{2}\left(\frac{1}{1+\xi^{2}\sigma^{2}}\right) \end{align*} Thus, \begin{align*} \frac{dI}{d\gamma} & =\frac{1}{2\pi\sigma}\exp\left(-\frac{1}{2}\left(c-\frac{b^{2}}{4a}\right)\right)\sqrt{\frac{2\pi}{a}}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\sqrt{\frac{a}{2\pi}}\exp\left(-\frac{1}{2}a\left(x-\frac{b}{2a}\right)^{2}\right)dx\\ & =\frac{1}{2\pi\sigma}\exp\left(-\frac{1}{2}\left(c-\frac{b^{2}}{4a}\right)\right)\sqrt{\frac{2\pi}{a}}\\ &=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\sigma^{2}a}}\exp\left(-\frac{1}{2}\left(c-\frac{b^{2}}{4a}\right)\right)\\ & =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\left(1+\sigma^{2}\xi^{2}\right)}}\exp\left(-\frac{1}{2}\frac{\gamma^{2}}{1+\xi^{2}\sigma^{2}}\right) \end{align*} and integration yields

$$ \begin{align*} I(\gamma) &=\int_{-\infty}^{\gamma}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\left(1+\sigma^{2}\xi^{2}\right)}}\exp\left(-\frac{1}{2}\frac{z^{2}}{1+\xi^{2}\sigma^{2}}\right)dz\\ &=\Phi\left(\frac{\gamma}{\sqrt{1+\xi^{2}\sigma^{2}}}\right) \end{align*} $$

which implies

$$ \begin{align*} \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\Phi(\xi x)\mathcal{N}(x|\mu,\sigma^{2})dx &=I(\xi\mu)\\ &=\Phi\left(\frac{\xi\mu}{\sqrt{1+\xi^{2}\sigma^{2}}}\right). \end{align*} $$