A0217
Title: Flexible Birnbaum-Saunders models
Authors: Heleno Bolfarine - University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) [presenting]
Abstract: We introduce a new extension of the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution as a follow up to the family of skew-flexible-normal distributions. This extension produces a family of Birnbaum-Saunders distributions including densities that can be unimodal as well as bimodal. This flexibility is important in dealing with positive bimodal data, given the difficulties experienced by the use of mixtures of distributions when bimodality is present. Some basic properties of the new distribution are studied including moments. Parameter estimation is approached via the method of moments and also by maximum likelihood, including a derivation of the Fisher information matrix. Computational aspects of maximum likelihood implementation is discussed. Real data illustrations indicate satisfactory performance of the new model.
