Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/ii/paper-1/5j/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ii Paper 1 5J Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Write for the single-observation score function. Differentiating the normalization of the probability density function givesFor discrete observations, use a sum instead. The allowed interchange of differentiation and integration is the usual regular-model assumption with common support. Adding these identities gives .
Let be the joint density. Because is an unbiased estimator with no explicit dependence on the parameter, differentiating givesThe scores are independent random variables with mean zero, so variance additivity for independent random variables gives . The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality applied to the centred estimator and the score now gives the Cramér-Rao lower bound:The denominator is the sample Fisher information. This bound concerns regular models with positive finite information; the preceding covariance identity explains why a small estimator variance requires a sufficiently informative score.
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