The Poisson regression margin-matching score equations from the site indicator for each directly give
Subtracting these seven row balances from the intercept equation gives the missing reference row balance. Therefore
The after-indicator score similarly gives . Subtracting it from the intercept balance yields the before-column balance, so
Thus the fitted before and after count totals are and , and each fitted site total equals its observed total. These identities concern expected counts ; unequal exposures do not imply corresponding unweighted sums of fitted rates equal sums of observed rates. They follow from the unpenalized canonical Poisson likelihood and the available intercept/factor columns, not from balanced exposure periods.
The prose names a second year that differs from the table label. The calculations use the four supplied counts, interpreting the first and second rows as the two displayed periods; no numerical conclusion depends on resolving that label discrepancy.
The first generalized linear model treats the four counts as independent Poisson random variables, with a log link and both row and column regression factors. The row-by-column interaction makes the log-linear model saturated. With , write
Its four maximum-likelihood fitted values equal the observed counts. Thus , , , and
The interaction is the log odds ratio measuring association of row and column. Under independent Poisson sampling, the delta-method variances are for the intercept, for the row contrast, for the column contrast, and for the interaction. Their square roots reproduce the printed standard errors. Although the software labels the standardized ratios as t values, these are asymptotic normal Wald statistics, with known Poisson dispersion one, not exact finite-df Student tests.
The statistical saturated model has zero residual deviance and zero residual degrees of freedom; this is a perfect interpolation, not evidence of predictive adequacy. The null deviance compares the four observed counts with an intercept-only model, whose four fitted means are . Fisher scoring is the numerical score/information iteration used to fit the model; the iteration count is a convergence report, not a test statistic.
Dropping the interaction gives the independence log-linear model for a two-way contingency table, . Its Poisson regression margin-matching score equations match the row and column totals, so
Here and denote the observed row and column totals. In particular the fitted row multiplier is , the column multiplier is , and the intercept is . These produce the second coefficient table. Their standard errors follow from the inverse Fisher information matrix; for the row and column contrasts their squared values are and , while the intercept variance is .
The Poisson deviance relative to the saturated fit is
The linear terms cancel because fitted and observed totals agree. The additive model has three coefficients, leaving one degree of freedom. Wilks theorem calibrates this likelihood-ratio test approximately by , giving . The interaction Wald test instead gives ; the two are only asymptotically equivalent.
Fisher's exact test conditions on both margins under independence. If is the upper-left count, then
Its usual two-sided p-value sums the probabilities of all tables no more probable than the observed . That sum is , reproducing the output without an asymptotic approximation. It tests the same absence of row-column association, but conditioning and discreteness explain the numerical difference from the likelihood-ratio test.
In ordinary language, the male proportion among the cases is in the first row and in the second. The estimated case-sex odds ratio is , but its approximate 95-percent confidence interval is wide, . These small samples do not give convincing evidence that the sex composition of cases changed between the two periods. Failure to reject is not evidence that the compositions are exactly equal. Nor do these counts establish a male-to-female disease-incidence ratio or an incidence trend: population denominators and comparable ascertainment would be needed for those interpretations.
Use for the intercept, to avoid confusing it with the observation means. Let be the fitted Poisson regression mean. Apart from constants, its log-likelihood is
At a finite interior maximum-likelihood estimate, the intercept score equation gives the Poisson regression margin-matching score equations:
The statistical saturated model fits each mean to , taking the boundary mean zero if . Subtracting fitted from saturated log-likelihood gives the Poisson deviance
The intercept balance cancels the sum of linear terms. Consequently
The unsimplified formula makes nonnegativity transparent; individual terms in the simplified formula need not each be positive.
For the deviance goodness-of-fit test, if the fitted design has rank , compare a suitably calibrated with , rejecting for large values. This approximation applies in a regular large-count regime, such as a fixed set of cells with increasing exposure and positive fitted proportions. It is not automatically accurate for many sparse Poisson observations. Check residual patterns and overdispersion; where the approximation is doubtful, simulate independent Poisson random variables with fitted means, refit each sample, and use a parametric bootstrap distribution of the same statistic. A large p-value means no detected lack of fit, not proof of the model. If a finite interior estimate fails to exist, the score proof needs a boundary-limit interpretation; for example all-zero data give a supremum with every fitted mean tending to zero and limiting deviance zero.
The Poisson distribution mass function is
It is an exponential dispersion family of order one with
Indeed, and . A generalized linear model specifies independent random variables from a response exponential family, together with a linear predictor and a link function relating it to the response mean. The Poisson canonical link is .
For the insurance counts, let class and merit be the reference levels in a regression factor. The fitted Poisson regression assumes
The insured exposure is known; its logarithm is an offset, not a coefficient to estimate. The model has eight free mean parameters and fixes the dispersion parameter at one. It assumes additive class and merit effects on the log-rate scale, hence multiplicative effects on the rate scale without a class-by-merit interaction.
Apart from constants independent of the parameters, the log-likelihood is
Differentiating gives the Poisson regression margin-matching score equations
Thus the fitted totals equal the observed totals in each class and merit category, including the reference categories by subtraction. In design matrix notation these equations are . Fisher scoring solves them iteratively; the reported three iterations describe the numerical fit, not an additional statistical result.
The regression intercept gives the baseline fitted claim rate per insured car year. The merit rate ratios, relative to merit at the same class, are
The class rate ratios, relative to class at the same merit, are
Each predicted cell rate is the baseline rate times its class and merit multipliers. The output's coefficient-to-standard error ratios are asymptotic normal Wald test statistics under the fitted Poisson regression, despite the software label “t value”; there is no estimated Gaussian residual scale in this model. All nonreference effects have very large absolute ratios.
The null Poisson deviance is on nineteen statistical degrees of freedom; adding the seven factor coefficients reduces it by . But the final Poisson deviance is still on twelve statistical degrees of freedom, and the deviance residuals include values near and . These are far beyond what a well-fitting unit-dispersion model would normally produce. The additive Poisson model fits substantially better than a common rate, but remains grossly inadequate. A class-by-merit interaction, overdispersion, or statistical dependence between claims could contribute; the summary alone does not distinguish these explanations. Its very small nominal standard errors and formal Wald tests rely on the rejected model, so improved mean structure and error assumptions are needed before treating them as reliable uncertainty assessments.