MPIDR Working Paper

Shocks in homogeneous and heterogeneous populations

Finkelstein, M. S.
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2005-024, 14 pages.
Rostock, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (August 2005)
Open Access

Abstract

A system subject to a point process of shocks is considered. Shocks occur in accordance with a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. Different criterions of system failures are discussed in a homogeneous case. Two natural settings are analyzed. Heterogeneity is modeled by an unobserved univariate random variable (frailty). It is shown that reliability (safety) analysis for a heterogeneous case can differ dramatically from that for a homogeneous setting. A shock burn-in procedure for a heterogeneous population is described. The corresponding bounds for the failure rates are obtained.
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.