TITLE: An identity for $\binom{-1/2}{n}$
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: I would like to show the formula
$$\forall n \in \mathbb{N},\quad\sum_{p=0}^n \binom{n}{p} \frac{(-1)^p}{p!} \prod_{k=0}^{p-1} \left(n+\frac{1}{2} + k\right) =  \binom{-1/2}{n} \, , $$
which is true according to Mathematica. I tried to use the identity
$$\binom{-1/2}{n} = \frac{1}{n!} \sum_{k=0}^n s_{n,k}\left(-\frac{1}{2}\right)^k \, ,$$
where $s_{n,k}$ denotes the Stirling numbers of first kind, but without any success. We end up with the following identity to prove
$$ \frac{1}{n!} \sum_{p=k}^n \binom{n}{p}\frac{s_{p,k}}{p!} \left(n+\frac{1}{2}\right)^k = s_{n,k} \, , $$
which is not a piece of cake for me neither. Among all the formulas I could find in Concrete Mathematics book from Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, and Oren Patashnik, none comes in a handy. I confess I don't have a large culture of this field.
I will be thankfull for any hint.

REPLY [3 votes]: Let $ \alpha $, $ \beta \in\mathbb{R} $. we know that, for any $ x\in\mathcal{B}\left(0,1\right)=\left(-1,1\right) $, we have : $$ \left(1+x\right)^{\alpha}=\sum_{n=0}^{+\infty}{\binom{\alpha}{n}x^{n}} $$ $$ \left(1+x\right)^{\beta}=\sum_{n=0}^{+\infty}{\binom{\beta}{n}x^{n}} $$
Which means : $$ \small\sum_{n=0}^{+\infty}{\binom{\alpha +\beta}{n}x^{n}}=\left(1+x\right)^{\alpha + \beta}=\left(\sum_{n=0}^{+\infty}{\binom{\alpha}{n}x^{n}}\right)\left(\sum_{n=0}^{+\infty}{\binom{\beta}{n}x^{n}}\right)=\sum_{n=0}^{+\infty}{\left(\sum_{k=0}^{n}{\binom{\alpha}{k}\binom{\beta}{n-k}}\right)x^{n}} $$
Thus, for any $ n\in\mathbb{N} $, we have : $$ \sum_{k=0}^{n}{\binom{\alpha}{k}\binom{\beta}{n-k}}=\binom{\alpha +\beta}{n} $$
Setting $ \beta = n $, $ \alpha = -n-\frac{1}{2} $, we get : $$ \sum_{k=0}^{n}{\binom{-n-\frac{1}{2}}{k}\binom{n}{n-k}}=\binom{-\frac{1}{2}}{n} $$
By definition $ \binom{-n-\frac{1}{2}}{k}=\frac{1}{k!}\prod\limits_{j=0}^{k-1}{\left(-n-\frac{1}{2}-j\right)} $, we also have that : $ \binom{n}{k}=\binom{n}{n-k} $. Thus : $$ \sum_{k=0}^{n}{\binom{n}{k}\frac{1}{k!}\prod_{j=0}^{k-1}{\left(-n-\frac{1}{2}-j\right)}}=\binom{-\frac{1}{2}}{n} =\frac{\left(-1\right)^{n}}{4^{n}}\binom{2n}{n}$$