A continuous distribution, denoted χ2(n), described by the density function
and the moment generating function
The parameter n is termed ‘the degrees of freedom’.
It is a particular case of gamma distribution (α = n/2, β = 2). This distribution can be derived from the normal distribution and arises in econometrics as the distribution of sums of certain random variables. In particular, if z is a standard normal random variable then z2 has χ2(1)-distribution, and if z1,…,zn are independent standard normal random variables then the sum z12 +…+ zn2 has χ2(n)-distribution. A χ2(n)-random variable has mean n and variance 2n. It is the limiting distribution of the scaled F-distribution and is used for hypothesis testing in many econometric applications.