A link between two-sided power and asymmetric Laplace distributions: with applications to mean and variance approximations (Q2483864)

This note aims to identify relationships between several distributions that constitute the background for refinement of PERT (project evaluation and review technique). Section 2 discusses the PERT motivation for the four-parameter two-sided power (TSP) distribution used as a proxy for the beta distribution, particularly in problems of risk and uncertainty assessment. Section 3 establishes the link between TSP distribution and reparameterized asymmetric Laplace distributions, proved to be useful for extending three-point approximations of arbitrary continuous distributions of \textit{E. S. Pearson} and \textit{J. W. Tukey} classical type [Biometrika 52, 533--546 (1965; Zbl 0151.24102)]. This result is applied in Section 4 to derive three-point discrete distribution approximations of the mean and variance of a continuous distribution representing a random variable, and to compare it with similar approaches appearing in the literature.