4.II.13I

Statistical Modelling
Part II, 2007

Let YY have a Gamma distribution with density

f(y;α,λ)=λαyα1Γ(α)eλyf(y ; \alpha, \lambda)=\frac{\lambda^{\alpha} y^{\alpha-1}}{\Gamma(\alpha)} e^{-\lambda y}

Show that the Gamma distribution is of exponential dispersion family form. Deduce directly the corresponding expressions for E[Y]\mathbb{E}[Y] and Var[Y]\operatorname{Var}[Y] in terms of α\alpha and λ\lambda. What is the canonical link function?

Let p<np<n. Consider a generalised linear model (g.l.m.) for responses yi,i=1,,ny_{i}, i=1, \ldots, n with random component defined by the Gamma distribution with canonical link g(μ)g(\mu), so that g(μi)=ηi=xiTβg\left(\mu_{i}\right)=\eta_{i}=x_{i}^{\mathrm{T}} \beta, where β=(β1,,βp)T\beta=\left(\beta_{1}, \ldots, \beta_{p}\right)^{\mathrm{T}} is the vector of unknown regression coefficients and xi=(xi1,,xip)Tx_{i}=\left(x_{i 1}, \ldots, x_{i p}\right)^{\mathrm{T}} is the vector of known values of the explanatory variables for the ii th observation, i=1,,ni=1, \ldots, n.

Obtain expressions for the score function and Fisher information matrix and explain how these can be used in order to approximate β^\hat{\beta}, the maximum likelihood estimator (m.l.e.) of β\beta.

[Use the canonical link function and assume that the dispersion parameter is known.]

Finally, obtain an expression for the deviance for a comparison of the full (saturated) model to the g.l.m. with canonical link using the m.l.e. β^\hat{\beta} (or estimated mean μ^=Xβ^)\hat{\mu}=X \hat{\beta}).