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It is well know that the convergence in distributions does not necessarily imply convergence in expectation, but implies convergence in expectation of bounded continuous functions.

Let $\{X_n\}$ be a sequence of random variables that converge in distribution to $X$. I would like to ask two examples as follows.

  1. An example such that $\mathbb{E}[X_n]$ does not convergence to $\mathbb{E}[X]$.
  2. An example such that $\mathbb{E}[X_n^k]$ does not convergence to $\mathbb{E}[X^k]$ for all $k = 1, 2,\ldots$. That is, the sequence does not converge in all the moments, not just a or a few fixed moments. Suppose that all their moments exist.
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Let $P(X_{n} = n) = \frac{1}{n}$ and $P(X_{n} = 0) = 1 - \frac{1}{n}$. Then $X_{n}$ converges in distribution to $X=0$, but $\mathbb{E}(X_{n}^{k}) = \frac{1}{n} n^{k} + 0 = n^{k-1} \not\xrightarrow{n\to\infty} 0$ for each $k \in \mathbb{N}$.

UPDATE: If you prefer continuous random variables on $\mathbb{R}$, you can "smoothen out" the previous example:

Let $X \sim N(0,1)$ and $X_{n}$ have the probability density $$ \rho_{X_{n}}(x) = \frac{1}{n} \cdot \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}\, \exp(-(x-n)^2/2) + \left(1-\frac{1}{n}\right) \cdot \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}\, \exp(-x^2/2). $$ Then $X_{n} \stackrel{\mathrm{d}}{\to} X$.

Now denote the moments of $X$ by $A_{k} := \mathbb{E}(X^{k})$ and, for $m \geq 0$, let $A_{k,m} := \mathbb{E}((X+m)^{k}) \geq A_{k} + m^k$. It follows for each $k\in\mathbb{N}$: \begin{align*} \mathbb{E}(X_{n}^{k}) &= \int_{\mathbb{R}} x^{k} \rho_{X_{n}}(x)\, \mathrm dx \\ &= \frac{1}{n} A_{k,n} + \left(1-\frac{1}{n}\right) A_{k} \\ &\geq \frac{1}{n} (A_{k}+n^{k}) + \left(1-\frac{1}{n}\right) A_{k} \\ &= n^{k-1} + A_{k} \\ &\not\xrightarrow{n\to\infty} A_{k}. \end{align*}

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  • $\begingroup$ I have edited the question. I would like to ask an example that fails to converge for all the moments not just a or some fixed moment(s). $\endgroup$
    – null
    Commented Feb 28, 2023 at 8:47
  • $\begingroup$ I modified my answer correspondingly. Does this work for you? All the moments exist, but are no longer bounded as $n\to\infty$. (Previously, for each $k$ separately, the moments converged to $1 \neq 0$, now they diverge except for $k=1$.) $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 28, 2023 at 8:51
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, the example works, thank you. I want to additionally ask, what if the distributions are continuous not discrete? Any example for this? $\endgroup$
    – null
    Commented Feb 28, 2023 at 8:52
  • $\begingroup$ I made an update that covers continuous random variables. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 28, 2023 at 10:23

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