Expectation of sum of geometric random variables vs. expectation of Pascal r.v.

probabilityprobability distributions

Let $\{X_i\}$ be a Bernoulli process, i.e. $X_1, X_2, X_3, \dots$ are i.i.d. Bernoulli variables with parameter $p$. Let $T_k$ be the time at which the $k$th success occurs. I can reason about the expectation of $T_k$ using independent increments or the sum of geometric random variables:

$$
\mathbb{E}[T_k] = \mathbb{E}[(T_1 – T_0) + (T_2 – T_1) + \dots + (T_{k-1} – T_k)] = \frac{k}{p}
$$

But I also believe that $T_k$ must a Pascal or negative binomial random variable. If we have $n$ trials and $k$ successes, let $r = n – k$ be the predefined number of failures. Then I would expect

$$
T_k \sim \text{NB}(n – k, p)
$$

But this expectation is

$$
\mathbb{E}[T_k] = \frac{(n – k) p}{1 – p}
$$

I must be missing something when I convert the problem from the sum of geometric random variables to a negative binomial random variable.

Best Answer

One can think of $\text{NB}(r,q)$ as the number of failures that occur before the experiment is stopped at the $r$th success, with $q$ being the probability of failure. (Note that I have reversed the roles of success and failure.)

Thus, $T_k - k$ follows the $\text{NB}(k, 1-p)$ distribution, so $$E[T_k] = k + \frac{(1-p) k}{p} = \frac{k}{p}.$$