The error message when using the function "mle" in the package "stats4"

[jeff1]

Hello Everyone!

I was using the function 'mle' to calculate the maximum likelihood estimate for my parameters using the package "stats4". However, when I construct my negative log-likelihood function and put it into mle function with some initial values, it just shows the following error:

fit <- mle(NW, start = list(bandwidth = matrix(0.1, ncol = 2 ,nrow=20 ) ,sigma.e =1),  method = "L-BFGS-B") 

Error in mle(NW, start = list(bandwidth = matrix(0.1, ncol = 2, nrow = 20), :
Mismatch in length of start values"

I know this may be due to the initial values I gave may not match with what I put in the NW function. However, I checked again and again and did not find anything wrong and I can actually compute the NW (the negative log-likelihood value) with the initial values

NW(bandwidth = matrix(0.1, ncol = 2 ,nrow=20 ),sigma.e = 1)
[1] 85.65009

Anyone knows why this is the case? Thanks!!!!!

[nirgrahamuk]

Hi!

To help us help you, could you please prepare a reproducible example (reprex) illustrating your issue? Please have a look at this guide, to see how to create one:

FAQ: How to do a minimal reproducible example ( reprex ) for beginners

A minimal reproducible example consists of the following items: A minimal dataset, necessary to reproduce the issue The minimal runnable code necessary to reproduce the issue, which can be run on the given dataset, and including the necessary information on the used packages. Let's quickly go over each one of these with examples: Minimal Dataset (Sample Data) You need to provide a data frame that is small enough to be (reasonably) pasted on a post, but big enough to reproduce your issue. Let's say, as an example, that you are working with the iris data frame head(iris) #> Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species #> 1 5.1 3.5 1.4 0.…