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Let $X_i$ be i.i.d. with $E[X_i]=\mu$, $Var(X_i)=\sigma^2$ and let $S_n=\sum_{i=1}^nX_i$.

From the central limit theorem we have for sufficiently large $n$ approximately,

$$S_n\sim \mathcal{N}(n\mu,n\sigma^2). $$

I was wondering if we could use the implication also the other way around?

For example let $H$ denote the height of the population of a certain country and from empirical studies it turns out that the distribution of $H$ is well modelled by a normal distribution can we conclude that $H$ is composed by i.i.d. random events i.e. $H=\sum_{i=1}^nX_i$.

Just thinking out loud here, is there any validity in this?

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    $\begingroup$ It is not correct to say $S_n \sim N(n\mu, n\sigma^2)$. Suppose all $X_i$ are integer valued, then $S_n$ will be integer valued so it is not "approximately Gaussian." Alternatively, I could ask "what do you mean by $S_n \sim N(n\mu, n\sigma^2)$" ? $\endgroup$
    – Michael
    Commented Aug 21, 2022 at 15:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Michael Yes indeed, my question was inspired from this sentence. "height can be thought of as a composite variable that reflects the additive effects of a large number of independent genetic and environmental influences, and such a variable should, according to the central limit theorem, follow a normal distribution." Is ther any validity to this? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 26, 2022 at 18:12
  • $\begingroup$ The idea is that it follows a normal distribution after an appropriate shifting and scaling, that is $\frac{1}{\sqrt{n\sigma^2}}(S_n-n\mu)$ has a distribution that approaches the $N(0,1)$ distribution as $n\rightarrow\infty$. $\endgroup$
    – Michael
    Commented Aug 26, 2022 at 22:50
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    $\begingroup$ When, 200 years ago, Quetelet published L'Homme Moyen ("The Average Man"), he saw Normal distributions everywhere and (I understand) made some kind of reverse inference like this. Experience over the course of the next century caused that point of view to be deprecated. Many of us learned, preferably early in our careers, the hazards of trying to conceive of Normal-looking data in this way. A sobering example is to plot a histogram of human heights. Often it looks acceptably Normal even when you know it's a mixture of male and female heights. $\endgroup$
    – whuber
    Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 21:08

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If I understand correctly your question, I would say there is no reason to have that. For instance, say that we observe a random variable $Y_n$, that for a large number of samples is distributed as $\mathcal{N} (f(n), \sigma^2(n))$, for some functions $f(n)$ and $\sigma(n)$ of the number of samples. Then we cannot conclude that $Y_n = \sum_i X_i$ for some random i.i.d. variables $X_i$. Indeed, it may happen (under certain regularity conditions) that this phenomena that we observe is the convergence of the distribution of $\sqrt{n} (\hat{\theta}_n - \theta_0)$ to such normal, where $\theta_0$ is the true parameter. In this case, there is no reason to have that $\hat{\theta}_n$ is the weighted average of some random variables. Indeed if: $$ \Delta_{n, \theta_{0}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} \sum_{i=1}^{n} I_{\theta_{0}}^{-1} \dot{\ell}_{\theta_{0}}\left(X_{i}\right), $$ where $\dot{\ell}_{\theta}$ is the score function of the model. The Bernstein-von Mises theorem implies that: $$\sqrt{n}\left(\hat{\theta}_{n}-\theta_{0}\right) \stackrel{d}{\rightarrow} \mathcal{N} \left(\Delta_{n, \theta_{0}}, I_{\theta_{0}}^{-1}\right)$$ where $I_{\theta_{0}}^{-1}$ is the inverse of the Fisher information matrix.

See, in this case $\hat{\theta}_n$ is the posterior estimated parameter, which often does not coincide with a sample average. However we observed the convergence to some normal $\mathcal{N} (f(n), \sigma^2(n))$.

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