On the Breiman conjecture

Abstract

Let $Y_{1},Y_{2},\ldots $ be positive, nondegenerate, i.i.d. $G$ random variables, and independently let $X_{1},X_{2},\ldots $ be i.i.d. $F$ random variables. In this note we show that whenever $\sum X_{i}Y_{i}/\sum Y_{i}$ converges in distribution to nondegenerate limit for some $F\in \mathcal{F}$, in a specified class of distributions $\mathcal{F}$, then $G$ necessarily belongs to the domain of attraction of a stable law with index less than 1. The class $\mathcal{F}$ contains those nondegenerate $X$ with a finite second moment and those $X$ in the domain of attraction of a stable law with index $1<\alpha <2$.