Past exam of the statistics course of the University of Oxford / 2014 / 1 / a / iii / Solution

Here the exponential distribution is parametrized by its mean, so $f(x;\theta )={\theta }^{-1}{e}^{-x/\theta }$ for $x\ge 0$ and $\theta >0$. Its log-likelihood and maximum-likelihood estimate areFor one observation, ${\partial }_{\theta }\log f=-1/\theta +X/{\theta }^2$. Since $\mathrm{Var}(X)={\theta }^2$, its Fisher information is $I_1(\theta )=1/{\theta }^2$. Consequently the estimated standard error is $\overline{X}/\sqrt{n}$, givingThis is a large-sample confidence interval, not an exact one. If its lower endpoint is negative, intersecting with the parameter space $(0,\infty )$ removes impossible values without excluding any possible true statistical parameter.