MSc.

Econ: MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS, 1996

The Moment Generating Function of the Normal Distribution

Recall that the probability density function of a normally distributed random
variable x with a mean of E(x) = and a variance of V (x) = 2 is
(1)

N (x; , 2 ) = p

e 2 (x)
1

(2 2 )

/ 2

Our object is to find the moment generating function which corresponds to

this distribution. To begin, let us consider the case where = 0 and 2 = 1.
Then we have a standard normal, denoted by N (z; 0, 1), and the corresponding
moment generating function is defined by
Z
1 2
1
zt
Mz (t) = E(e ) = ezt e 2 z dz
2
(2)
1 2

= e2t .
To demonstate this result, the exponential terms may be gathered and rearranged to give
(3)

exp zt exp 12 z 2 = exp 12 z 2 + zt

= exp 12 (z t)2 exp 12 t2 .

Then
Mz (t) = e

(4)

1 2
2t

2
1
1
e 2 (zt) dz
2

1 2

= e2t ,
where the final equality follows from the fact that the expression under the
integral is the N (z; = t, 2 = 1) probability density function which integrates
to unity.
Now consider the moment generating function of the Normal N (x; , 2 )
distribution when and 2 have arbitrary values. This is given by
Z
2
2
1
1
xt
(5)
Mx (t) = E(e ) = ext p
e 2 (x) / dx
(2 2 )
Define
(6)

z=

x
,

which implies
1

x = z + .

MSc. Econ: MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS: BRIEF NOTES, 1996

Then, using the change-of-variable technique, we get
Z
t

zt

Mx (t) = e
(7)

12 z 2

e
(2 2 )
Z
1 2
1
t
=e
ezt e 2 z dz
2
1

= et e 2

2 2

dx
dz
dz

Here, to establish the first equality, we have used dx/dz = . The final equality
follows in view of the final equality of equation (2) above where the dummy
variable t can be replace by t. The conclusion is that
(8)

The moment generating function corresponding to the normal

probability density function N (x; , 2 ) is the function Mx (t) =
exp{t + 2 t2 /2}.

The notable characteristic of this function is that it is in the form of an

exponential. This immediately implies that the sum of two independently distributed Normal random variables is itself a normally distributed random variable. Thus:
(9)

Let x N (x , x2 ) and y N (y , y2 ) be two independently distributed normal variables. Then their sum is also a normally distributed random variable: x + y = z N (x + y , x2 + y2 ).

To prove this we need only invoke the result that, in the case of independence, the moment generating function of the sum is the product of the moment
generating functions of its elements. This enables us to write
(10)

Mz (t) = Mx (t)My (t) = exp x t + 12 x2 t2 exp y t + 12 y2 t2

= exp (x + y )t + 12 (x2 + y2 )t2

which is recognised as the moment generating function of a normal distribution.