Approximating Mills ratio

Consider the Mills ratio f(x) = (1 - Φ(x))/φ(x), x≥ 0, where φ is the density function of the standard Gaussian law and Φ its cumulative distribution. We introduce a general procedure to approximate f on the whole [0, ∞) which allows to prove interesting properties where f is involved. As applications we present a new proof that 1/. f is strictly convex, and we give new sharp bounds of f involving rational functions, functions with square roots or exponential terms. Also Chernoff type bounds for the Gaussian Q-function are studied. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.