A2.12

Computational Statistics and Statistical Modelling
Part II, 2002

(i) Suppose that the random variable YY has density function of the form

f(yθ,ϕ)=exp[yθb(θ)ϕ+c(y,ϕ)]f(y \mid \theta, \phi)=\exp \left[\frac{y \theta-b(\theta)}{\phi}+c(y, \phi)\right]

where ϕ>0\phi>0. Show that YY has expectation b(θ)b^{\prime}(\theta) and variance ϕb(θ)\phi b^{\prime \prime}(\theta).

(ii) Suppose now that Y1,,YnY_{1}, \ldots, Y_{n} are independent negative exponential variables, with YiY_{i} having density function f(yiμi)=1μieyi/μif\left(y_{i} \mid \mu_{i}\right)=\frac{1}{\mu_{i}} e^{-y_{i} / \mu_{i}} for yi>0y_{i}>0. Suppose further that g(μi)=βTxig\left(\mu_{i}\right)=\beta^{T} x_{i} for 1in1 \leqslant i \leqslant n, where g()g(\cdot) is a known 'link' function, and x1,,xnx_{1}, \ldots, x_{n} are given covariate vectors, each of dimension pp. Discuss carefully the problem of finding β^\hat{\beta}, the maximum-likelihood estimator of β\beta, firstly for the case g(μi)=1/μig\left(\mu_{i}\right)=1 / \mu_{i}, and secondly for the case g(μ)=logμig(\mu)=\log \mu_{i}; in both cases you should state the large-sample distribution of β^\hat{\beta}.

[Any standard theorems used need not be proved.]