Using iterative reweighting algorithm and genetic algorithm to calculate the estimation of the parameters of the maximum likelihood of the skew normal distribution

Abstract EN

Excessive skewness which occurs sometimes in the data is represented as an obstacle against normal distribution.

So, recent studies have witnessed activity in studying the skew-normal distribution (SND) that matches the skewness data which is regarded as a special case of the normal distribution with additional skewness parameter (α), which gives more flexibility to the normal distribution.

When estimating the parameters of (SND), we face the problem of the non-linear equation and by using the method of Maximum Likelihood estimation (ML) their solutions will be inaccurate and unreliable.

To solve this problem, two methods can be used that are: the genetic algorithm (GA) and the iterative reweighting algorithm (IR) based on the Maximum Likelihood method.

Monte Carlo simulation was used with different skewness levels and sample sizes, and the superiority of the results was compared.

It was concluded that (SND) model estimation using (GA) is the best when the samples sizes are small and medium, while large samples indicate that the (IR) algorithm is the best.

The study was also done using real data to find the parameter estimation and a comparison between the superiority of the results based on (AIC, BIC, Mse and Def) criteria