Simultaneously estimating with ease the three parameters of the generalized gamma distribution
Abstract This paper is concerned with maximizing the log likelihood function of the generalized gamma distribution that was introduced in 1962 by E. W. Stacy. This task is greatly facilitated by using two equations obtained from differentiating with respect to the parameters the log likelihood function and from equating to zero the results of the differentiation. One then obtains the key result that one parameter is expressed in terms of another parameter, not in terms of the other two parameters. Included in the present paper are three complete programs in BASIC and their outputs for three numerical examples from the literature. These outputs suggest that these computer programs can be useful as models to find with ease the maximum likelihood estimates of the three parameters of the generalized gamma distribution of Stacy.