A Generalised Matching Distribution for the Problem of Coincidences

Abstract

This paper examines the classical matching distribution arising in the “problem of coincidences”. We generalise the classical matching distribution with a preliminary round of allocation where items are correctly matched with some fixed probability, and remaining non-matched items are allocated using simple random sampling without replacement. Our generalised matching distribution is a convolution of the classical matching distribution and the binomial distribution. We examine the properties of this latter distribution and show how its probability functions can be computed. We also show how to use the distribution for matching tests and inferences of matching ability.