The exponentiated generalized gamma distribution with application to lifetime data

Abstract

A four-parameter extension of the generalized gamma distribution capable of modelling a bathtub-shaped hazard rate function is defined and studied. The beauty and importance of this distribution lies in its ability to model monotone and non-monotone failure rate functions, which are quite common in lifetime data analysis and reliability. The new distribution has a number of well-known lifetime special sub-models, such as the exponentiated Weibull, exponentiated generalized half-normal, exponentiated gamma and generalized Rayleigh, among others. We derive two infinite sum representations for its moments. We calculate the density of the order statistics and two expansions for their moments. The method of maximum likelihood is used for estimating the model parameters and the observed information matrix is obtained. Finally, a real data set from the medical area is analysed.

Keywords:

• censored data
• data analysis
• exponentiated exponential
• exponentiated Weibull
• generalized gamma
• maximum likelihood
• order statistic
• Weibull distribution

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Brazilian agencies CAPES and CNPq for providinig financial support.