Paper 2, Section II, J
(a) We consider the model and an i.i.d. sample from it. Compute the expectation and variance of and check they are equal. Find the maximum likelihood estimator for and, using its form, derive the limit in distribution of .
(b) In practice, Poisson-looking data show overdispersion, i.e., the sample variance is larger than the sample expectation. For and , let ,
Show that this defines a distribution. Does it model overdispersion? Justify your answer.
(c) Let be an i.i.d. sample from . Assume is known. Find the maximum likelihood estimator for .
(d) Furthermore, assume that, for any converges in distribution to a random variable as . Suppose we wanted to test the null hypothesis that our data arises from the model in part (a). Before making any further computations, can we necessarily expect to follow a normal distribution under the null hypothesis? Explain. Check your answer by computing the appropriate distribution.
[You may use results from the course, provided you state it clearly.]