Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/o/o2/a/i/solution

For the full-column-rank design matrix, the normal-error maximum-likelihood estimator is the least-squares estimator
Indeed maximizing the Gaussian likelihood over minimizes , whose normal equations are ; rank makes invertible. Substitution of the model gives
Since , it follows that , proving unbiasedness.

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