Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2004/o/o5/c/solution

In a regular one-parameter model with joint density , write the score function as and the Fisher information as . Assume a parameter-independent support, differentiability and sufficient domination to interchange parameter differentiation and integration, and . If has finite variance and is unbiased for a differentiable target , the Cramér-Rao lower bound is
Indeed, differentiating total mass gives , and differentiating gives . Cauchy-Schwarz inequality proves the bound. For independent identically distributed observations, information adds: . In particular for the parameter itself, , the bound is . The assumptions are material: the same formula cannot simply be imposed on models with parameter-dependent support.

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