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Biometrika 1971 58(2):375-391; doi:10.1093/biomet/58.2.375
© 1971 by Biometrika Trust
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Studies in the History of Probability and Statistics. XXVII

The hypothesis of elementary errors and the Scandinavian school in statistical theory

CARL-ERIK SÄRNDAL

University of British Columbia

This paper follows the development of an aspect of the Theory of Errors known as the Hypothesis of Elementary Errors. This development produced a scientific tradition in statistical inference theory concerned with the causes and effects of nonnormality of statistical data, a tradition sometimes called the Scandinavian school. Its founder was the Swedish astronomer C. V. L. Charlier. Being concerned mainly with the period of Charlier and his followers, this paper first outlines briefly some of the nineteenth-century thinking that formed the essential background for the Scandinavian school. The principal contributions of Charlier and his followers are discussed. Their ideas are compared with simultaneous developments in England, starting from the time of Karl Pearson.

Key Words: History of Charlier series • Lexis schemes • Asymptotic expansions • Pearson curves • Hypothesis of elementary errors • Central limit theorem • Multivariate distributions • Robust estimation


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