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I have the following equation: $ x = \frac{1-\Phi(x)}{a\phi(x)}$, where $\Phi$ is the cdf and $\phi$ is the pdf of the standard normal distribution.

How can one solve for $x$? Is there an analytical approach? Or can this only be done numerically?

These might be rather stupid questions (it's quite a while ago that I last was exposed to this), but any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks a lot!

Carl
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  • First of all, have you tried to plot for example the 2 curves $y=a x \phi(x)$ and $y=1-\Phi(x)$ and see where they intersect in order, at least, to have an idea of where the root/roots is/are situated? A very coarse sketch shows for example that there are no negative roots – Jean Marie Jun 21 '17 at 15:28
  • I am almost certain that there are no analytical approaches yielding an exact solution. – Jean Marie Jun 21 '17 at 15:52
  • Yes, I have done that, thanks. I think, too, that the solutions are positive, but I was just wondering if they could be expressed analytically. – Carl Jun 21 '17 at 15:53
  • A small numerical computation gives, for $a=1$: $x=0.5969382659986477...$ – Jean Marie Jun 21 '17 at 16:20
  • @JeanMarie Really? It doesn´t seem very close. – callculus42 Mar 01 '20 at 13:15
  • @callculus As I see your result, I am at a certain distance... Maybe, I haven't taken the right definition of $\Phi$... I confess that 2 and 1/2 years later... – Jean Marie Mar 01 '20 at 13:42
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    @JeanMarie" How fast time goes by ... – callculus42 Mar 01 '20 at 13:46
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    @callculus As said by Heinrich Heine: "Ich hab' euch im besten Juli verlassen / Und find' euch wieder im Januar ; / Ihr sasset damals so recht in der Hitze / Jetzt sei ihr gekhült und kalt sogar..." (Die Heimkehr, 1823) – Jean Marie Mar 01 '20 at 14:18
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    @JeanMarie Wow. I didn´t expect that. C´est incroyable. I´ve to admit I have no idea about a similar lyric in french. It gives my the opportunity to concern with german literature and maybe with french literature-but translated. – callculus42 Mar 01 '20 at 14:55
  • A slightly similar poem in french is the very famous "Le lac" by Lamartine (also in Romance times) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Lac_(poem) – Jean Marie Mar 01 '20 at 15:03

1 Answers1

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Use the series expansions. You can see here how they can be derived. Let $a=1$.

The equation is $x\cdot \phi(x)=1-\Phi(x)$. The equation can be multipied by $\sqrt{2\cdot \pi}$. It becomes

$$x\cdot e^{-x^2/2}=\sqrt{2\cdot \pi}-\left(0.5\cdot \sqrt{2\cdot \pi}+\int_0^x e^{-t^2/2} \,dt \right)$$

Using the series expansion the approximated equation is

$$x\cdot \left(1-\frac{x^2}{2}+\frac{x^4}{8}-\frac{x^6}{48}+\frac{x^8}{384}\right)$$ $$=\sqrt{2\cdot \pi}-\left(0.5\cdot \sqrt{2\cdot \pi}+\frac{x}{1\cdot 1}-\frac{x^3}{2\cdot 3}+\frac{x^5}{8\cdot 5}-\frac{x^7}{48\cdot 7}+\frac{x^9}{384\cdot 9}\right)$$

This equation can be solved with Wolfram alpha. The result is $\boxed{x=0.751781}$

To check the result use calculators for the pdf and the cdf. I get

$$x\cdot \phi(x)=0.751781\cdot 0.30073521=0.226087...\approx 22.609\% $$

$$1-\Phi(x)=1-0.77391=0.22609=22.609\%$$

It looks like that the approximation is fine.

callculus42
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  • Thank you very much for your fast help. This is very interesting, and I will have a closer look at this. Quick follow-up question: The factors in the series are $1,2,8,48,384,...$ rather than $1,2,8,48,484,...$, or am I confused? (The context of my original question is a simple economic model, in which x is quantity in a profit function.) – Carl Jun 22 '17 at 07:12
  • @Carl No, you´re not confused. Good catch. Luckely the typo was in the last summand. So it doesn´t change the result much. I´ve edited the answer, including the WA-Link. .If you find the answer helpful you can accept it – callculus42 Jun 22 '17 at 10:09