Analysis of survival data by an exponential-generalized Poisson distribution.

In this paper, we consider the distribution of life length of a series system with random number of components, sayZ. Considering the distribution ofZas generalized Poisson, an exponential-generalized Poisson (EGP) distribution is developed. The generalized Poisson distribution is a generalization of the Poisson distribution having one extra parameter. The structural properties of the resulting distribution are presented and the maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters is investigated. Extensive simulation studies are carried out to study the performance of the estimates. The score test is developed to test the importance of the extra parameter. For illustration, two real data sets are examined and it is shown that the EGP model, presented here, fits better than the exponential–Poisson distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]