Journal of the American Statistical Association 74(366), pp. 359-364.
ISSN/ISBN: 0162-1459 DOI: Not available at this time.
Abstract: We assess the probability that a table of rounded precentages adds to 100 percent. This extends work of Mosteller, Youtz, and Zahn (1967) who found that the chance of rounding to 100 percent was about 3/4 with three categories, 2/3 with four categories, and (6/πc)1/2 with a large number c of categories. We give a mathematical treatment of thei phenomenon when the table is drawn from a multinomial distribution or from a mixture of multinomial distributions. We discuss the very different small-sample behavior and treat Benford's leading digit data as an example.
Bibtex:
@article{,
ISSN = {01621459},
URL = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/2286335},
author = {Persi Diaconis and David Freedman},
journal = {Journal of the American Statistical Association},
number = {366},
pages = {359--364},
publisher = {[American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.]},
title = {On Rounding Percentages},
volume = {74},
year = {1979}
}
Reference Type: Journal Article
Subject Area(s): Statistics