A Note on Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Regression Models Using Grouped Data

Summary The estimation of parameters for a class of regression models using grouped or censored data is considered. It is shown that with a simple reparameterization some commonly used distributions, such as the normal and extreme value, result in a log-likelihood which is concave with respect to the transformed parameters. Apart from its theoretical implications for the existence and uniqueness of maximum likelihood estimates, this result suggests minor changes to some commonly used algorithms for maximum likelihood estimation from grouped data. Two simple examples are given.