On characterizing discrete distributions via conditional expectations of weak record values

Abstract

Let (W _n ,n ≥ 0) denote the sequence of weak records from a distribution with support S = { α₀,α₁,...,α _N }. In this paper, we consider regression functions of the form ψ _n (x) = E(h(W _n ) |W _n+1 = x), where h(·) is some strictly increasing function. We show that a single function ψ _n (·) determines F uniquely up to F(α₀). Then we derive an inversion formula which enables us to obtain F from knowledge of ψ _n (·), ψ _n-1(·), h(·) and F(α₀).