Galton, Watson and the extinction problem (1873–1875)

Nicolas Bacaër ()
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Nicolas Bacaër: IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement)

Chapter Chapter 9 in A Short History of Mathematical Population Dynamics, 2011, pp 49-54 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In 1873 the British statistician Galton and his compatriot mathematician Watson considered the problem of the extinction of family names without knowing the work of Bienaymé. Watson noticed that the generating function associated with the probability distribution of the number of men in each generation could be computed recursively. But he analyzed incorrectly the probability of extinction.

Keywords: Male Child; Trinity College; Human Species; Extinction Probability; Male Family Member (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1007/978-0-85729-115-8_9

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