A generalized linear model assumes independent responses from one exponential dispersion family,
where , , and a link function relates the mean to the linear predictor by . It follows from normalization of the density after shifting the natural parameter that
Independence therefore gives the joint moment-generating function
whenever every shifted natural parameter lies in its natural-parameter domain.
Put and . The density can be written
where
Thus this is an exponential dispersion family. Its derivative identities give
The variance function is . In the usual Gamma-GLM convention the canonical inverse link is
it differs by a minus sign from the natural parameter .
Expanding the exponent of the Inverse Gaussian distribution gives
Thus the exponential dispersion family representation
has
and
The standard cumulant identities yield
Hence the variance function is , and the canonical link function is .
Residual deviance 2026-10-06
The unscaled residual deviance of an exponential dispersion family compares its fitted mean with the saturated statistical model at a common dispersion parameter. Its normalization removes the factor in the log-likelihood. In Poisson regression and binomial regression, , so it is twice the saturated-minus-fitted log-likelihood. Under suitable regularity, has approximately a chi-squared distribution with the residual degrees of freedom; this is not an automatic accurate approximation for sparse responses. Nested deviance reductions with estimated dispersion lead to approximate F-tests after scaling by the dispersion estimate.