English

A note on a universal random variate generator for integer-valued random variables

Computation 2012-11-06 v1

Abstract

A universal generator for integer-valued square-integrable random variables is introduced. The generator relies on a rejection technique based on a generalization of the inversion formula for integer-valued random variables. The proposal gives rise to a simple algorithm which may be implemented in a few code lines and which may show good performance when the classical families of distributions - such as the Poisson and the Binomial - are considered. In addition, the method is suitable for the computer generation of integer-valued random variables which display closed-form characteristic functions, but do not possess a probability function expressible in a simple analytical way. As an example of such a framework, an application to the Poisson-Tweedie distribution is provided.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1211.0815,
  title  = {A note on a universal random variate generator for integer-valued random variables},
  author = {Lucio Barabesi and Luca Pratelli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.0815},
  year   = {2012}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T22:32:52.400Z