 Solution

For fixed known $r>0$, take the natural parameter of an exponential familyThe negative binomial distribution has log-likelihoodThus this is a negative binomial exponential family, with dispersion parameter $\varphi =1$ in the convention of part (a). The carrier contains the Gamma function and depends on the fixed size $r$, which need not be an integer. Differentiating the cumulant function of an exponential family givesThereforeThe size $r$ controls overdispersion relative to a Poisson distribution; it is different from the unit dispersion parameter used by this fixed-size generalized linear model. Another common convention applies to the scaled response $Z=Y/r$: then $b(\theta )=-\log (1-e^{\theta })$ and $\varphi =1/r$. Keeping track of the response scale prevents confusing these two representations. At $\lambda =0$ the law is concentrated at zero and is obtained as a boundary limit, rather than by a finite natural parameter of an exponential family.