We introduce a new concept of skewness for unimodal continuous distributions which is built on the asymmetry of the density function around its mode. The asymmetry is captured through a skewness function. We call a distribution homogeneously skewed if this skewness function is consistently positive or negative throughout its domain, and partially homogeneously skewed if the skewness function ch...

Rewards in the natural environment are rarely predicted with complete certainty. Uncertainty relating to future rewards has typically been defined as the variance of the potential outcomes. However, the asymmetry of predicted reward distributions, known as skewness, constitutes a distinct but neuroscientifically underexplored risk term that may also have an impact on preference. By changing onl...

For both the academic and the financial communities it is a familiar stylized fact that stock market returns have negative skewness and excess kurtosis. This stylized fact has been supported by a vast collection of empirical studies. Given that the conventional measures of skewness and kurtosis are computed as an average and that averages are not robust, we ask, “How useful are the measures of ...

I utilize fixed-odds horse race gambling data to estimate a utility function of uncertainty for consumers. Results suggest that bettors accept low return bets due to a preference for skewness, not risk. The fixed odds format enables me to estimate a reduced form model of the bookie’s take. Using the Gini coefficient to capture the skewness of a race, I find evidence that bookie takes rise with ...

Weak gravitational lensing provides a direct statistical measure of the dark matter distribution. The variance is easiest to measure, which constrains the degenerate product σ8Ω . The degeneracy is broken by measuring the skewness arising from the fact that densities must remain positive, which is not possible when the initially symmetric perturbations become non-linear. Skewness measures the n...

While controversy surrounds skewness attributes of typical yield distributions, a better understanding is important for agricultural policy assessment and for crop insurance rate setting. Day (1965) conjectured that crop yield skewness declines with an increase in low levels of nitrogen use, but higher levels have no effect. In a theoretical model based on the law of the minimum (von Liebig) te...

This paper investigates the significance of volatility, skewness, kurtosis, and downside risk in predicting the cross-sectional variation in future returns on corporate bonds. The results indicate a significantly positive (negative) link between volatility (skewness) and expected returns, whereas kurtosis does not have a robust incremental contribution to the predictability of bond returns. Bon...

The amplitude of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) would be normally distributed if the coupled Pacific ocean-atmosphere were a linear system forced by Gaussian weather noise. Moment estimates of skewness and kurtosis demonstrate that this is not the case for monthly mean anomalies in Pacific sea surface temperatures during 1950-97. The noted predominance of El Niño events compared to La ...

With necessary condition analysis (NCA), a necessity effect is estimated by calculating the amount of empty space in the upper left corner in a plot with a predictor X and an outcome Y. In the present simulation study, calculated necessity effects were found to have a negative association with the skewness of the predictor and a positive association with the skewness of the outcome. Also the st...