The Inverse Gaussian Distribution: Statistical Theory and Applications

This book is written in the hope that it will serve as a companion volume to my first monograph. The first monograph was largely devoted to the probabilistic aspects of the inverse Gaussian law and therefore ignored the statistical issues and related data analyses. Ever since the appearance of the book by Chhikara and Folks, a considerable number of publications in both theory and applications of the inverse Gaussian law have emerged thereby justifying the need for a comprehensive treatment of the issues involved. This book is divided into two sections and fills up the gap updating the material found in the book of Chhikara and Folks. Part I contains seven chapters and covers distribution theory, estimation, significance tests, goodness-of-fit, sequential analysis and compound laws and mixtures. The first part forms the backbone of the theory and wherever possible I have provided illustrative examples for easy assimilation of the theory. The second part is devoted to a wide range of applications from various disciplines. The applied statistician will find numerous instances of examples which pertain to a first passage time situation. It is indeed remarkable that in the fields of life testing, ecology, entomology, health sciences, traffic intensity and management science the inverse Gaussian law plays a dominant role. Real life examples from actuarial science and ecology came to my attention after this project was completed and I found it impossible to include them.