How to specify gamma distribution using shape and rate in Python?

Question

With Scipy gamma distribution, one can only specify shape, loc, and scale. How do I create a gamma variable with shape and rate?

Answer 1

Inverse scale (1/scale) is rate parameter.

So if you have shape and rate you can create gamma rv with this code

>>> from scipy.stats import gamma
>>> rv = gamma(shape, scale = 1.0/rate)

Read more about different parametrizations of Gamma distribution on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_distribution