st: Poisson Distribution

["Gauri Khanna" <gwkhanna@hotmail.com>]

Dear Statalist,

I would like to run a Poisson Distribution for a count variable; number of 
breakdowns(N) as a function of hours of tubewell operation (H).

The poisson distribution would be

exp(-Mu*H).[(Mu.H)^N]/N!

1. To do this, I would have to run the following regression:
Poisson Breakdowns Hours   - Is this correct?

However, I am not sure whether to have a constant term or not. So what 
should I do?

2. I would like to estimate the parameter(Mu) using Max. Likelihood 
techniques. Is this already produced from the simple Poisson regression 
command?

As far as my understanding goes, the Poisson distribution utlitises the Max 
Likelhiood technique and not OLS as the dependant variable takes on few 
values that are non-negative integers.

Thank you for your help.

Regards,

Ms. Gauri Khanna

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