Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2012 / iii / Paper 37 / 4 / a

For the Poisson regression, the log-likelihood isSince ${\mu }_i=e^{x_i^T\beta }$, the score function and its derivative areConsequently a finite maximum-likelihood estimator satisfiesThese nonlinear equations are normally solved by iteratively reweighted least squares. If $X$ has full column rank, the Hessian is negative definite and any finite solution is the unique maximizer. Full rank does not by itself rule out a boundary solution at infinite coefficients for every conceivable data set. The Poisson generalized linear model has dispersion one, so there is no separate scale parameter in this likelihood.