Consistency of the MLE under a two-parameter gamma mixture model with a structural shape parameter

TL;DR

This paper proves that the maximum likelihood estimator for a finite Gamma mixture model with a structural shape parameter is well-defined and consistent, addressing issues with unbounded likelihood functions.

Contribution

It establishes the strong consistency of the MLE in Gamma mixture models with a structural shape parameter, a novel theoretical result.

Findings

MLE is well-defined under a structural shape parameter

Simulation confirms the estimator's consistency

Application to income data reveals subpopulation structures

Abstract

The finite Gamma mixture model is often used to describe randomness in income data, insurance data, and data from other applications. The popular likelihood approach, however, does not work for this model because the likelihood function is unbounded, and the maximum likelihood estimator is therefore not well defined. There has been much research into ways to ensure the consistent estimation of the mixing distribution, including placing an upper bound on the shape parameter or adding a penalty to the log-likelihood function. In this paper, we show that if the shape parameter in the finite Gamma mixture model is structural, then the maximum likelihood estimator of the mixing distribution is well defined and strongly consistent. We also present simulation results demonstrating the consistency of the estimator. We illustrate the application of the model with a structural scale parameter to household income data. The fitted mixture distribution leads to several possible subpopulation structures in terms of the level of disposable income.