Measures of Shape

• Skewness
– Absence of symmetry
– Extreme values in one side of a
distribution
• Kurtosis
– Peakedness of a distribution
 Skewness

Negatively Symmetric Positively

Skewed (Not Skewed) Skewed
 Skewness

Mean Mode Mean Mean

Mode
Median
Median Mode Median

Negatively Symmetric Positively

Skewed (Not Skewed) Skewed
 Coefficient of Skewness
• Summary measure for skewness

3   M d 
S

• If S < 0, the distribution is negatively
skewed (skewed to the left).
• If S = 0, the distribution is symmetric (not
skewed).
• If S > 0, the distribution is positively
skewed (skewed to the right).
 Coefficient of Skewness

  23
1
 2
 26  3
 29

Md1  26 M
d2  26 M
d3  26
 1
 12.3  2
 12.3  3
 12.3


3 1  M 
d1 
3 2  M d2  
3 3  M 
d3
S 1

 S 2

 S 3


1 2 3

3 23  26 3 26  26 3 29  26

  
12.3 12.3 12.3
 0.73 0  0.73
 Kurtosis
• Peakedness of a distribution
– Leptokurtic: high and thin
– Mesokurtic: normal in shape
– Platykurtic: flat and spread out

Leptokurtic

Mesokurtic
Platykurtic

© 2002 Thomson / South-Western Slide 3-6

• Positive kurtosis indicates a "heavy-
tailed" distribution and negative kurtosis
indicates a "light tailed" distribution