Hi!
As far as I can see, Stata takes zero initial values for all coefficients in an -ml- estimation (with method -lf-). How do I prevent Stata from doing so? How do I instead specify the initial values that I want Stata to start with? I want to do this to prevent the log-likelihood from getting stuck at -infinity; when it starts with initial values of zeros, the loglikelihood seems to get stuck at -infinity. Probably that is why it generates an error saying "cannot generate feasible values" when I use the -ml check- statement.
To set up my preferred initial values, I have tried the following: after the -ml model- statement, I have used -ml init- to set up my initial values for a subset of my coefficients. I have let Stata pick initial values for the rest of my coefficients.
But, then when I see the iteration log with -ml max, trace - I see that the coefficient vector in iteration number 0 (zero) is still not the one I had specified with the -ml init- statement. What is going wrong? Any help would be appreciated.
Details of my statements are given below; I have included the first output from the iteration log though I do not know if that will be intelligible (the formatting gets messed up). As you will notice, I am setting up initial values for a bunch of constants figuring in my likelihood function. I am doing this to prevent the log-likelihood from getting stuck at -infinity (which it does if it starts with initial values of zeros).
. ml model lf gender66_lf (fsize: dfsize p21 p31 p32 = age edu rur work middle poor, nocons) (alpha:) (target: p41 p42 p43 p51 p52 p53 p54 p61 p62 p63 p64 p65 dfsize1 = edu rur work middle poor) /four /five /six /seven /eight /nine /ten /eleven /twelve /thirteen, tech(bhhh nr);
. #delimit cr
delimiter now cr
. ml init /four=1.0
. ml init /five=0.32
. ml init /seven=0.85
. ml init /eight=1.42
. ml init /ten=0.38
. ml init /eleven=0.59
. ml init /twelve=0.86
. ml max, trace
initial: log likelihood = -72821.591
rescaling entire vector +.
rescale: log likelihood = -72819.04
rescaling equations .......+.+++++++++++++++++++++++...++++++++++++++++++++++++++.
sign reverse ++++++++++++++++++++++++++.....++++++++++++++++++++++++.++++++++++++++++++++++..+...
rescaling equations .....................+++++++++++++++++++.....
rescale eq: log likelihood = -72784.475
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iteration 0:
Coefficient vector:
fsize: fsize: fsize: fsize: fsize: fsize: alpha: target: target: target: target:
age edu rur work middle poor _cons edu rur work middle
r1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
target: target: four: five: six: seven: eight: nine: ten: eleven: twelve:
poor _cons _cons _cons _cons _cons _cons _cons _cons _cons _cons
r1 0 0 1 1.91e-08 0 -.425 .71 0 1.13e-08 .036875 .86
thirteen:
_cons
r1 0
Thanks.
Deepankar
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