Questions tagged [beta-distribution]

A two-parameter family of univariate distributions defined on the interval $[0,1]$.

The "Beta distribution" is a two-parameter family of continuous univariate distributions defined on the interval $[0,1]$. The probability density function of the distribution is

$$f_X(x;\alpha,\beta) = \frac{\Gamma(\alpha + \beta) }{\Gamma(\alpha) \Gamma(\beta) } x^{\alpha -1}(1-x)^{\beta-1}$$

with positive parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta$.

A common use of the distribution is in Bayesian statistics as a prior for the Binomial distribution. The Beta distribution is also used in beta regression, which can be useful when the dependent variable has a floor or ceiling effect or is bounded.

The distribution can be extended to represent random variables with support other than $[0,1]$, by using its four-parameter variant, that has the density function ($m$ = lower bound, $M$ = upper bound of the support)

$$f_X(x; \alpha, \beta, m, M) =\frac{\Gamma(\alpha + \beta) }{\Gamma(\alpha) \Gamma(\beta) } \frac{ (x-m)^{\alpha-1} (M-x)^{\beta-1} }{(M-m)^{\alpha+\beta-1}}\;$$

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What is the intuition behind beta distribution?

Disclaimer: I'm not a statistician but a software engineer. Most of my knowledge in statistics comes from self-education, thus I still have many gaps in understanding concepts that may seem trivial for other people here. So I would be very thankful…
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Calculating the parameters of a Beta distribution using the mean and variance

How can I calculate the $\alpha$ and $\beta$ parameters for a Beta distribution if I know the mean and variance that I want the distribution to have? Examples of an R command to do this would be most helpful.
Dave Kincaid
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Regression for an outcome (ratio or fraction) between 0 and 1

I am thinking of building a model predicting a ratio $a/b$, where $a \le b$ and $a > 0$ and $b > 0$. So, the ratio would be between $0$ and $1$. I could use linear regression, although it doesn't naturally limit to 0..1. I have no reason to believe…
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Does the beta distribution have a conjugate prior?

I know that the beta distribution is conjugate to the binomial. But what is the conjugate prior of the beta? Thank you.
Brash Equilibrium
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Relationship between Binomial and Beta distributions

I'm more of a programmer than a statistician, so I hope this question isn't too naive. It happens in sampling program executions at random times. If I take N=10 random-time samples of the program's state, I could see function Foo being executed on,…
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Distribution of scalar products of two random unit vectors in $D$ dimensions

If $\mathbf{x}$ and $\mathbf{y}$ are two independent random unit vectors in $\mathbb{R}^D$ (uniformly distributed on a unit sphere), what is the distribution of their scalar product (dot product) $\mathbf x \cdot \mathbf y$? I guess as $D$ grows the…
amoeba
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Real-life examples of common distributions

I am a grad student developing an interest for statistics. I like the material over-all, but I sometimes have a hard time thinking about applications to real life. Specifically, my question is about commonly used statistical distributions (normal -…
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Jaynes' $A_p$ distribution

In Jaynes' book "Probability Theory: The Logic of Science", Jaynes has a chapter (Ch 18) entitled "The $A_p$ distribution and rule of succession" in which he introduces the idea of $A_p$ distributions, which this passage helps illustrate: [...] To…
sheppa28
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How to construct a multivariate Beta distribution?

What is a multidimensional generalization of the Beta distribution, in compliance with the following specification? I am not looking for the Dirichlet distribution. I am looking for a generalization where the distribution is defined on the hypercube…
Angelorf
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Beta regression of proportion data including 1 and 0

I am trying to produce a model for which I have a response variable which is a proportion between 0 and 1, this includes quite a few 0s and 1s but also many values in between. I am thinking about attempting a beta regression. The package I have…
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Dealing with 0,1 values in a beta regression

I have some data in [0,1] which I would like to analyze with a beta regression. Of course something needs to be done to accommodate the 0,1 values. I dislike modifying data to fit a model. also I don't believe that zero and 1 inflation is a good…
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Choosing between uninformative beta priors

I am looking for uninformative priors for beta distribution to work with a binomial process (Hit/Miss). At first I thought about using $\alpha=1, \beta=1$ that generate an uniform PDF, or Jeffrey prior $\alpha=0.5, \beta=0.5$. But I am actually…
Mateus
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Why is there -1 in beta distribution density function?

Beta distribution appears under two parametrizations (or here) $$ f(x) \propto x^{\alpha} (1-x)^{\beta} \tag{1} $$ or the one that seems to be used more commonly $$ f(x) \propto x^{\alpha-1} (1-x)^{\beta-1} \tag{2} $$ But why exactly is there "$-1$"…
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How to interpret the coefficients from a beta regression?

I have some data that is bounded between 0 and 1. I have used the betareg package in R to fit a regression model with the bounded data as the dependent variable. My question is: how do I interpret the coefficients from the regression?
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Why exactly can't beta regression deal with 0s and 1s in the response variable?

Beta regression (i.e. GLM with beta distribution and usually the logit link function) is often recommended to deal with response aka dependent variable taking values between 0 and 1, such as fractions, ratios, or probabilities: Regression for an…
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