  A new class of distributions, called as normal power series (NPS), which
contains the normal one as a particular case, is introduced in this paper. This
new class which is obtained by compounding the normal and power series
distributions, is presented as an alternative to the class of skew-normal and
Balakrishnan skew-normal distributions, among others. The density and
distribution functions of this new class of distributions, are given by a
closed expression which allows us to easily compute probabilities, moments and
related measurements. Estimation of the parameters of this new model by maximum
likelihood method via an EM- algorithm is given. Finally, some applications are
shown as examples.
