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I'm actually an engineering student so I'm not too good with probability and was hoping someone may be able to help with the following:

So I have a ratio of discrete random variables. I want to be able to know when I can get away with approximating its expected value as a ratio of expected values. For example, for the continuous case I came across the following formulation from a Taylor series expansion

$\text{E}[x/y]=\text{E}[x]/ \text{E}[y]- \text{Cov}[x ,y]/ \text{E}[y]^2 + \text{E}[x] \text{Var}[y]/ \text{E}[y]^3$

Does this apply for discrete random variables? if not, what is its analogous expression?

thank you! hadi

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    How did you derive the formula? Thanks!2013-09-05

3 Answers 3