On Math stack exchange, purpleostrich asked “Consider random variables A, B, and C. We know that A = B + C. We also know that A and C have an MGF. Is it the case that B must have a MGF?”

Here is my answer:

You Can’t Compute the MGF

In general, you can’t compute the MGF of $B$ if you only know the MGFs of $A$ and $C$. For example, consider two possible joint distributions of $A$ and $C$:

Case 1: P( A=0 and C=0) = 1/2 and P(A=1 and C=1)=1/2. In this case, the MGFs of A and C are $(1+\exp(t))/2$ and the MGF of B is 1.

Case 2: P( A=0 and C=1) = 1/2 and P(A=1 and C=0)=1/2. In this case, the MGFs of A and C are $(1+\exp(t))/2$ and the MGF of B is $\frac{\exp(-t)+\exp(t)}2$.

Notice that in both Case 1 and Case 2 the MGFs for $A$ and $C$ were $(1+exp(t))/2$, but the MGF for $B$ changed from Case 1 to Case 2.

You can prove the MGF exists

Although you can’t computer the MGF of $B$, you can prove that $M_B(t)$ exists for $t\in D=\frac12 (Dom(M_A)\cap (-Dom(M_C))$. Suppose $t\in D$. Then $||\exp(ta)||_1<\infty$ and $||\exp(-tc)||_1<\infty$ where $||g||_p=\left(\int\int |g(a,c)|^p\; f(a,c)\; da\; dc\right)^{1/p}$ is the $L_p$-norm of $g$ over the joint probability space and $f(a,c)$ is the joint pdf of $A$ and $C$. That implies $||\exp(ta/2)||_2 < \infty$ and $||\exp(-tc/2)||_2 < \infty$. By the Hölder’s inequality or, more specifically, Schwarz inequality, $||\exp(ta)\exp(-tc)||_1<\infty$. But, $||\exp(ta)\exp(-tc)||_1= ||\exp(t(a-c)||_1= E[\exp(tB)]=M_B(t).$ This proves that $M_B(t)$ exists for $t\in D$.

If A and C are independent

If $A$ and $C$ are independent and $B = A-C$, then it must be the case that
$$
M_B(t) = M_A(t)\cdot M_C(-t)
$$
whenever $t\in Dom(M_A)\cap(-Dom(M_C))$ (see e.g. Wikipedia). Here is a rough proof.

If $t\in Dom(M_A)\cap(-Dom(M_C))$, then
$$M_A(t)\cdot M_C(-t) = \int_{a=-\infty}^\infty \exp(t a) dF_A(a) \cdot \int_{c=-\infty}^\infty \exp(-t c) dF_C(c)$$
$$
= \int_{a=-\infty}^\infty \int_{c=-\infty}^\infty \exp(t (a-c)) dF_A(a) dF_C(c)
$$
$$
= \int_{b=-\infty}^\infty \exp(t b) dF_B(b) = M_B(t)
$$
where $F_A, F_B$, and $F_C$ are the cumulative distribution functions of $A, B$, and $C$ respectively.

An interesting mathematical problem came up at work today.  I had to find a formula for the standard deviation of a binomial distribution given that the random variable was not zero.  I put some notes below summarizing my results.

Removing 0 from any Distribution

Suppose that you have a random variable $X$.  What are the values of $\mu_0 := E[X | X\neq 0]$ and $\sigma_0 := \sqrt{E[ (X-\mu_0)^2| X\neq 0]}$?  After doing some algebra, I got

$$\mu_0 = \bar{X}/(1-p_0), \quad\mathrm{and}$$

$$\sigma_0 = \sqrt{ \frac{\sigma_X^2 – p_0({\bar{X}}^2+\sigma_X^2)}{\left(1-p_0\right)^2}}= \sqrt{\frac{\sigma_X^2}{1-p_0} \;-\; \frac{ p_0 \bar{X}^2}{(1-p_0)^2}}$$

where $p_0:=P(X=0)$, $\bar{X}=E[X]$, and $\sigma_X := \sqrt{E\left[\left(X-\bar{X}\right)^2\right]}\,$.

Notice that if $p_0=0$ then the right hand side reduces to $\sigma_X$.

Bernoulli Distribution

If we apply the formulas above to the Bernoulli Distribution where $X$ is either 0 or 1 and $P(X=1)=p$, then $p_0 = (1-p)$, $\bar{X}=p$, and $\sigma_X^2 = p(1-p)$, so $\mu_0 = p/(1-(1-p))=1$ and

$$\sigma_0 = \sqrt{\frac{\sigma_X^2}{1-p_0} – \frac{ p_0 \bar{X}^2}{(1-p_0)^2}}=\sqrt{\frac{p(1-p)}{p} – \frac{ (1-p)p^2}{p^2}}=0.$$

That is to be expected because if $X$ is not 0, then it must be 1.

Binomial Distribution

Anyway, I really wanted to apply these formulas to the Binomial Distribution.  For the Binomial Distribution, $p_0=(1-p)^n$, $\bar{X} = np$, and $\sigma_X = \sqrt{n p (1-p)}$.  So,

$$\mu_0 = n p/(1-(1-p)^n), \quad\mathrm{and}$$

$$\begin{align}\sigma_0&= \sqrt{  \frac{n p (1-p) – (1-p)^n(n^2p^2+n p (1-p))}{\left(1-(1-p)^n\right)^2} }\\&= \sqrt{  n p \frac{ (1-p) – (1-p)^n(np+ (1-p))}{\left(1-(1-p)^n\right)^2}.}\end{align}$$

Notice that if $n=1$ then $\mu_0=1$ and $\sigma_0=0$ which makes sense because if $n=1$ and $X\neq0$ then $X$ is always 1.  Also notice that $\lim_{n->\infty} (\mu_0 – n p) = 0$ and $\lim_{n->\infty} (\sigma_0 – \sqrt{n p (1-p)}) = 0$ which is to be expected because $\lim_{n->\infty} p_0=0$. (I am assuming $0< p<1$.)