This book is devoted to the study of univariate distributions appropriate for the analyses of data known to be nonnegative. The book includes much material from reliability theory in engineering and survival analysis in medicine.

Albert W. Marshall, Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the University of British Colombia, previously served on the faculty of the University of Rochester and on the staff of the Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories. His fundamental contributions to reliability theory have had a profound effect in furthering its development.

Ingram Olkin is Professor Emeritus of Statistics and Education at Stanford University, after having served on the faculties of Michigan State University and the University of Minnesota. He has made significant contributions in multivariate analysis and in the development of statistical methods in meta-analysis, which has resulted in its use in many applications.

Professors Marshall and Olkin, coauthors of papers on inequalities, multivariate distributions, and matrix analysis, are about to celebrate 50 years of collaborations. Their basic book on majorization has promoted awareness of the subject, and led to new applications in such fields as economics, combinatorics, statistics, probability, matrix theory, chemistry, and political science.