Re: Sum of Gammas

Dr. Rajesh Barnwal ( (no email) )
Fri, 19 Nov 1999 18:49:30 -0600

One reference that may be useful is :
The Distribution of the Sum of Independent Gamma Random Variables by P.
G. Moschopoulos in Annals of Statistical Mathematics, 1985, pp 541 -
544.
This reference was provided to me by my supervisor Professor Provost.

DanG3104@aol.com wrote:
>
> I'm hoping someone on the list can help me with a probability problem. I remember enough to frame the question, but nowhere near enough to answer it!
>
> I'm modeling a process made up of several independent, consecutive steps. I'm using a Gamma distribution for the duration of each step, so the total duration is the sum of several independent Gamma variables. Is there a closed form for the distribution of the total duration, as a function of the various Gamma parameters?
>
> I'd actually like to use a truncated Gamma (i.e., limited to a maximum and minimum value) for the steps. Does that make the distribution of the total duration too messy?
>
> If there is no closed form, is there a reasonable approximation that anyone can suggest? I'm doing this in Visual Basic (Excel was way too slow) so I am quite flexible about what kind of algorithm to implement.
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> Dan Goddard
>
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