Polarized distributions...

[Darren Schreiber]

I have been running my voting model simulations assuming a uniform
distribution of voters across the issue space.  I am going to do some more
runs looking at the impact of using a normal distribution (easy enough to
change the distribution in Swarm.)  But, I also want to represent a
randomly generated electorate with a distribution that is polarized -- very
few voters in the middle and increasing numbers towards the extreme.  I was
wondering if anyone had an easy way to generate such a distribution.

Flipping through William Greene's Econometrics text I note that the Beta
distribution can be U-shaped (which is what I am looking for).  The text
does not say what parameters would create that shape, and I am not sure how
to write a distribution object in Swarm.

Thanks in advance...


        Darren



_____________________________________________

                 Darren Schreiber
                  Attorney at Law
                 Graduate Student
             Political Science, UCLA
                address@hidden


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