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On the probability that a discrete IFR random variable exceeds its mean

Jianhang Ai, Vassilis Karagiannis, Ondřej Kuželka, Christos Pelekis

Source record

Source: arXiv

Published: Oct 17, 2026

arXiv: 2610.24726

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Source abstract

Let XX be an integer-valued random variable with E(∣X∣)0\mathbb{E}(|X|) 0. It is shown that P(X≥m+1) ≥ γ1+2γ , \mathbb{P}(X \ge m+1) \,\ge\, \fracγ{1+2γ} \, , with the bound being best possible. As a consequence, it is shown that if H∼Hyp(n,i,k)H \sim \text{Hyp}(n, i, k) is a hypergeometric random variable for which both ik/nik/n and (n−i)(n−k)/n(n-i)(n-k)/n are at least log⁡(4/3)\log(4/3), then it holds P(H>E(H))≥1/4\mathbb{P}(H >\mathbb{E}(H)) \ge 1/4 when E(H)\mathbb{E}(H) is not an integer, and P(H>E(H))≥1/6\mathbb{P}(H >\mathbb{E}(H)) \ge 1/6 when E(H)\mathbb{E}(H) is an integer, both bounds being best possible.

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