On the Asymptotic Variances of û Terms in Loglinear Models of Multidimensional Contingency Tables

Loglinear models are classified as direct or indirect depending on whether the maximum likelihood estimates of cell values are explicit functions of the sufficient statistics or not. For saturated (hence, direct) models, Goodman (1970) and Bishop, Fienberg, and Holland (1975) used the δ method to calculate the asymptotic variances of various û terms in the loglinear models. In the present paper, this approach has been generalized to direct unsaturated hierarchical loglinear models. General rules for determining closed form expressions for asymptotic variances in such situations are obtained; bounds for the asymptotic variances of û terms in indirect models are considered; and these rules are compared with other methods of producing asymptotic variances.