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Posch, PN (2013)

Benford Or Not-Benford? How To Test For The First-Digit-Law

JP Journal of Fundamental and Applied Statistics 4(1/2), pp. 1-22.

ISSN/ISBN: Not available at this time. DOI: Not available at this time.



Abstract: In this paper, we discuss several methods used to examine the goodness-of-fit of a given dataset to the so-called Benford’s law. While the use of distance measures itself suffer from theoretical founded critical values, the procedures used in literature so far do not provide a more clear statement. Apart from using graphical methods (like histogram, etc.), which are not part of the discussion, the often used Distortion Factor Model is extended to the Mantissa-Distortion-Factor (MDF) and a Benford-specific test procedure is introduced. This test is based the property of invariance of scale and base, which is an underlying feature of the First-Digit-Law. The so called Transformation-Invariance-Test (TIT) is derived as a closed form test- procedure. The practical power of the TIT is shown using a widely used macroeconomic dataset.


Bibtex:
@article {, AUTHOR = {Peter N. Posch}, TITLE = {Benford Or Not-Benford? How To Test For The First-Digit-Law}, JOURNAL = {JP Journal of Fundamental and Applied Statistics}, YEAR = {2013}, VOLUME = {4}, NUMBER = {1-2}, PAGES = {1--22}, DOI = {}, URL = {}, }


Reference Type: Journal Article

Subject Area(s): Statistics