Kendall Tau Rank Correlation Coefficient - Definition

Definition

Let (x1, y1), (x2, y2), …, (xn, yn) be a set of observations of the joint random variables X and Y respectively, such that all the values of (xi) and (yi) are unique. Any pair of observations (xi, yi) and (xj, yj) are said to be concordant if the ranks for both elements agree: that is, if both xi > xj and yi > yj or if both xi < xj and yi < yj. They are said to be discordant, if xi > xj and yi < yj or if xi < xj and yi > yj. If xi = xj or yi = yj, the pair is neither concordant nor discordant.

The Kendall τ coefficient is defined as:

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