Copyright © 2010 Agostino Tarsitano. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

We use the quantile function to define statistical models. In particular, we present a five-parameter version of the generalized lambda distribution (FPLD). Three alternative methods for estimating its parameters are proposed and their properties are investigated and compared by making use of real and simulated datasets. It will be shown that the proposed model realistically approximates a number of families of probability distributions, has feasible methods for its parameter estimation, and offers an easier way to generate random numbers.