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Part BCSIR NET June 2024parameter-free-category-carries-no-information

Parameter free category carries no information

Consider a distribution with probability mass function f(x | if x = 0; 1/2 if if x = 2; and 0 otherwise, where is an unknown parameter. In a random sample of size 100 from the above distribution, the observed counts of 0, 1 and 2 are 20, 30 and 50 respectively. Then, the maximum likelihood estimate of based on the observed data is

  1. A.1
  2. B.5/7
  3. C.1/2
  4. D.2/7

You have the answer. Trap Analysis is why the other three were written.

Not a worked solution repeated four times — the specific reasoning error each wrong option was built to reward.

See pricing

50 are analysed free — try those first.

Related counterexample: The MLE is unbiased

More on this topic

The chapter behind this: Maximum likelihood and the method of moments — free to read

From EstimationMLE and method of moments

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