The Laplace Distribution and Generalizations

About this book

Over 75 years ago in a paper that appeared in the 1923 issue of the Journal of American Statistical Association (pp. 841-852) entitled "First and Second Laws of Error," the late professor and head of vital statistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, Edwin Bidwell Wilson (1879-1964)' concurs with economics professor W.L. Crum's conclusions expressed in a paper published in the same journal in March 1923, entitled "The Use of the Median in Determining Seasonal Variation" (pp. 607-614) that "a good many series of data from economic sources probably may be better treated by the median than by the mean."