Jason, For the homework, you don't need to take derivatives. 1.2 just asks for a function that calculates the ll, with inputs of parameters, x, and y. Just take the log of the (product of) likelihood function. Later, in 1.4, you use optim, which calls the ll function as in previous hw's. Outside of the assignment, you're right though that in general, you would take two partial derivs to find the analytic answer -- i.e., find the maximum of the log likelihood function. Best regards, Joseph Joseph Poj Gavinlertvatana Doctoral student, Marketing Harvard Business School Wyss Hall, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163 Ph 617.230.5907 Fx 617.496.4397 Txt/Vm 617.910.0563 Em pgavinlertvatana at hbs.edu -----Original Message----- From: gov2001-l-bounces at lists.fas.harvard.edu [mailto:gov2001-l-bounces at lists.fas.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Jason Ketola Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 11:03 PM To: Class List for Gov 2001/E-2001 Subject: [gov2001] 1.2 question This is likely due to my uncertainty about 1.1, but does finding the LL in 1.2 require us to take two partial derivatives? Thanks, Jason _______________________________________________ gov2001-l mailing list gov2001-l at lists.fas.harvard.edu http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/gov2001-l _______________________________________________ gov2001-l mailing list gov2001-l at lists.fas.harvard.edu http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/gov2001-l