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RE: st: RE: Problems in maximising a likelihood function


From   "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   RE: st: RE: Problems in maximising a likelihood function
Date   Wed, 14 Jun 2006 08:10:03 +0100

The limit you are approaching may just be that your 
model is not well suited to your data. Very simply, 
what is the dimensionality of your parameter space
and are your data adequate for what you are trying
to do? 

Nevertheless it seems that you have only partially acted on 
the earlier comments. Glancing at the code again
I seem to see expressions which are logarithms of 
products, logarithms of ratios, logarithms 
of exponentials, etc. so there may be much more
tbat you can do by way of cleaning up the expression. 

Also, it looks very much as if your thetas 
are all single-valued parameters, in which 
case scalars rather than variables are appropriate
for what you are calling q1 ... 

Nick 
[email protected] 

Deepankar Basu
 
> Nick,
> 
> Thanks for your comments. I accept your point about a positive
> likelihood. Actually, there was an error in one of the 
> statements; I had
> put a "+" in place of a "*". so, now I have negative values of the log
> likelihood. But, I still don't have convergence.  
> 
> About calculating the log likelihood directly: in my case, the log
> likelihood for each observation is the log of a sum (of two 
> quantities).
> Hence, I cannot simply things much using the log function 
> beyond taking
> the log of the whole expression. That is what I have done 
> now. So, now I
> am working with the log likelihood directly.
> 
> Additionally, I have removed some of the temporary variables 
> that I was
> using to define the log likelihood and have instead used the 
> expressions
> directly. Since some of the temporary variables (like x3, x4 
> or x6) were
> exp functions, there was a potential for them to become too large.
> Hence, I have removed them. The temporary variables that I 
> use now (x1,
> x2 and x5 apart from q*) are all bounded.
> 
> Now, when I issue the - ml max - command (after ml check 
> shows that all
> is well), I get the following error:
> 
> initial:       log likelihood = -2841.7221
> rescale:       log likelihood = -1595.8146
> rescale eq:    log likelihood = -1452.1748
> (setting optimization to BHHH)
> numerical derivatives are approximate
> flat or discontinuous region encountered
> numerical derivatives are approximate
> flat or discontinuous region encountered
> numerical derivatives are approximate
> flat or discontinuous region encountered
> could not calculate numerical derivatives
> missing values encountered
> r(430); 
> 
> Comments and suggestions are welcome. I give the re-worked do-file
> below. Thanks,
> Deepankar
> 
> ____________________________________________________________
> 
> clear
> capture program drop gender1_lf
> program gender1_lf
>    version 8.1
>    * set mem 100m
>    #delimit ;
>    args lnf theta1 theta2 theta3 
>         theta5 theta6 theta7 theta8 theta9 
>         theta10 theta11 theta12 theta13 theta14;
> 
>    tempvar q1 q2 q3 q4 q5 q6 q7 q8 q9 q10 q11 q12 q13 q14
>            x1 x2 x5;
>    #delimit cr
> 
>    quietly {
>       gen double `q1' = 1/(1+exp(`theta5'))   
>       gen double `q2' = exp(`theta5')/(1+exp(`theta5'))   
> 
>       gen double `q3' = 1/(1+exp(`theta6')+exp(`theta7'))   
>       gen double `q4' = exp(`theta6')/(1
> +exp(`theta6')+exp(`theta7'))   
>       gen double `q5' = exp(`theta7')/(1
> +exp(`theta6')+exp(`theta7'))   
> 
>       gen double `q6' = 1/(1
> +exp(`theta8')+exp(`theta9')+exp(`theta10'))   
>       gen double `q7' = exp(`theta8')/(1
> +exp(`theta8')+exp(`theta9')+exp(`theta10'))   
>       gen double `q8' = exp(`theta9')/(1
> +exp(`theta8')+exp(`theta9')+exp(`theta10'))   
>       gen double `q9' = exp(`theta10')/(1
> +exp(`theta8')+exp(`theta9')+exp(`theta10'))   
> 
>       gen double `q10' = 1/(1
> +exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')+ exp(`theta14'))   
>       gen double `q11' = exp(`theta11')/(1
> +exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')+ exp(`theta14'))   
>       gen double `q12' = exp(`theta12')/(1
> +exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')+ exp(`theta14'))   
>       gen double `q13' = exp(`theta13')/(1
> +exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')+ exp(`theta14'))   
>       gen double `q14' = exp(`theta14')/(1
> +exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')+ exp(`theta14'))   
>       
>       gen double `x1' = 2^(-$ML_y1)
>       gen double `x2' = exp(lnfact($ML_y1))
>       
>       gen double `x5' = norm(-`theta3')
>       
> 
>    }
>       #delimit ;
>       quietly replace `lnf' =
> ln((`x1'/`x2')*(exp(-(exp(`theta1'))))*(exp($ML_y1*`theta1'))*`x5' + 
> 
> ((1-`x5')*(exp(-(exp(`theta2'))))*((exp($ML_y1*`theta2'))))*( $ML_y2 +
> $ML_y3*`q1' + $ML_y4*`q2' + 
>                                  $ML_y5*`q3' + $ML_y6*`q4'+ 
> $ML_y7*`q5'
> + 
>                                  $ML_y8*`q6' + $ML_y9*`q7'+
> $ML_y10*`q8'+$ML_y11*`q9' + 
>                                  $ML_y12*`q10' + $ML_y13*`q11' +
> $ML_y14*`q12'+ $ML_y15*`q13'+$ML_y16*`q14'));
>       #delimit cr
>    
> end
> 
> 
> use india2.dta
> 
> #delimit ;
> ml model lf gender1_lf (one: dfsize p21 p31 p32 = v012 v025, nocons) 
> (two: p41 p42 p43 p51 p52 p53 p54 = v012 v025) 
> (three: p61 p62 p63 p64 p65 = v012 v130, nocons) 
> (four:) (five:) (six:) (sev:) (eight:) (nine:) (ten:) (eleven:)
> (twelve:) (thirteen:), tech(bhhh nr);  
> 
> #delimit cr
> 
> 
> 
> _____________________________________________________________________
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 2006-06-13 at 17:46 +0100, Nick Cox wrote:
> > I am not an -ml- expert, but I sense some basic
> > misunderstandings. 
> > 
> > A positive likelihood is not problematic as such. 
> > Although a probability cannot exceed 1, 
> > this is not true of a probability density. Whenever 
> > probability densities are typically above 1, their product
> > will be too. 
> > 
> > However, your program calculates the likelihood directly, 
> > before logging it, and the numbers become far too big to handle. 
> > exp(35000) is big!!! 
> > 
> > Thus it is the likelihood that becomes missing, not your
> > original data. Stata would just ignore any data missings. 
> > 
> > You must rewrite your program so that you 
> > are working in terms of the log likelihood throughout. 
> > 
> > A side-issue with your program is that you appear to 
> > be putting lots of constants into variables. Using
> > scalars is much better style and less wasteful
> > of storage. 
> > 
> > Nick 
> > [email protected] 
> > 
> > DEEPANKAR BASU
> > > 
> > > I am facing problems while trying to do a maximum likelihood 
> > > estimation. I have written out the likelihood estimator; then 
> > > I have used "ml check". The "ml check" shows that my 
> > > likelihood evaluator has passed all tests. Then when I issue 
> > > the "ml max" command, I get the following error message: 
> > > 
> > > initial:       log likelihood =  31058.016
> > > rescale:       log likelihood =  31058.016
> > > rescale eq:    log likelihood =  34639.752
> > > (setting optimization to BHHH)
> > > could not calculate numerical derivatives
> > > missing values encountered
> > > r(430);
> > > 
> > > First thing that worries me is that the log likelihood is 
> > > positive; is that a sign that my program has some problem? 
> > > And second, the maximisation is interrupted before completion 
> > > because it could not calculate numerical derivatives (missing 
> > > values encountered). I re-checked my dataset; there are no 
> > > missing values for the variables that I am using. Probably 
> > > the error message means something else.
> > > 
> > > I have tried (1) switching between techniques BHHH and NR; 
> > > (2) ml max, difficult. I still get the same error message 
> > > (though the log likelihood values where the execution of the 
> > > program stops are different in each case).
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Below I give the do-file that has my likelihood evaluator 
> > > program and also a "ml model ..." command (as suggested in 
> > > the book by Gould, Pitbaldo and Sribney: page 165); any 
> > > suggestions are welcome. 
> > > 
> > > If someone can detect some error immediately, that will be 
> > > great. But, if someone needs to run the program, I can send a 
> > > small subset of my dataset for the purpose. Thanks in advance.
> > > 
> > > Deepankar Basu
> > > 
> > > ____________________________________________
> > > 
> > > 
> > > clear
> > > capture program drop gender_lf
> > > program gender_lf
> > >    version 8.1
> > >    set mem 100m
> > >    #delimit ;
> > >    args lnf theta1 theta2 theta3 
> > >         theta5 theta6 theta7 theta8 theta9 
> > >         theta10 theta11 theta12 theta13 theta14;
> > > 
> > >    tempvar q1 q2 q3 q4 q5 q6 q7 q8 q9 q10 q11 q12 q13 q14
> > >            x x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7;
> > >    #delimit cr
> > > 
> > >    quietly {
> > >       gen double `q1' = 1/(1+exp(`theta5'))   
> > >       gen double `q2' = exp(`theta5')/(1+exp(`theta5'))   
> > > 
> > >       gen double `q3' = 1/(1+exp(`theta6')+exp(`theta7'))   
> > >       gen double `q4' = 
> > > exp(`theta6')/(1+exp(`theta6')+exp(`theta7'))   
> > >       gen double `q5' = 
> > > exp(`theta7')/(1+exp(`theta6')+exp(`theta7'))   
> > > 
> > >       gen double `q6' = 
> > > 1/(1+exp(`theta8')+exp(`theta9')+exp(`theta10'))   
> > >       gen double `q7' = 
> > > exp(`theta8')/(1+exp(`theta8')+exp(`theta9')+exp(`theta10'))   
> > >       gen double `q8' = 
> > > exp(`theta9')/(1+exp(`theta8')+exp(`theta9')+exp(`theta10'))   
> > >       gen double `q9' = 
> > > exp(`theta10')/(1+exp(`theta8')+exp(`theta9')+exp(`theta10'))   
> > > 
> > >       gen double `q10' = 
> > > 1/(1+exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')+ 
> exp(`theta14'))   
> > >       gen double `q11' = 
> > > exp(`theta11')/(1+exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')
> > > + exp(`theta14'))   
> > >       gen double `q12' = 
> > > exp(`theta12')/(1+exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')
> > > + exp(`theta14'))   
> > >       gen double `q13' = 
> > > exp(`theta13')/(1+exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')
> > > + exp(`theta14'))   
> > >       gen double `q14' = 
> > > exp(`theta14')/(1+exp(`theta11')+exp(`theta12')+exp(`theta13')
> > > + exp(`theta14'))   
> > >       
> > >       gen double `x1' = 2^(-$ML_y1)
> > >       gen double `x2' = exp(lnfact($ML_y1))
> > >       gen double `x3' = exp(`theta1')
> > >       gen double `x4' = exp($ML_y1*`theta1')
> > >       gen double `x5' = norm(-`theta3')
> > >       gen double `x6' = exp(`theta2')
> > >       gen double `x7' = exp($ML_y1*`theta2')
> > >       #delimit ;
> > >       gen double  `x' = `x1'*(1/`x2')*exp(-`x3')*`x4'*`x5' + 
> > > (1-`x5')*exp(-`x6')*`x7' + 
> > >                          $ML_y2 + ($ML_y3*`q1' + $ML_y4*`q2') + 
> > >                          ($ML_y5*`q3' + $ML_y6*`q4'+ 
> $ML_y7*`q5') + 
> > >                          ($ML_y8*`q6' + $ML_y9*`q7'+ 
> > > $ML_y10*`q8'+$ML_y11*`q9') + 
> > >                          ($ML_y12*`q10' + $ML_y13*`q11' + 
> > > $ML_y14*`q12'+ $ML_y15*`q13'+$ML_y16*`q14');
> > >       #delimit cr
> > > 
> > >    }
> > >    
> > >    quietly replace `lnf' = ln(`x')
> > > end
> > > 
> > > 
> > > use india1.dta
> > > 
> > > #delimit ;
> > > ml model lf gender_lf (one: dfsize p21 p31 p32 = v012 
> v025, nocons) 
> > > (two: p41 p42 p43 p51 p52 p53 p54 = v012 v025) 
> > > (three: p61 p62 p63 p64 p65 = v012 v025 v130, nocons) 
> > > (four:) (five:) (six:) (sev:) (eight:) (nine:) (ten:) 
> > > (eleven:) (twelve:) (thirteen:), tech(bhhh nr);  
> > > 
> > > #delimit cr

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