Fitting Lognormal Distribution Details

We now provide more detail about the LL for a log-normal distribution and the estimation of the μ and σ parameters using MLE.

LL formulas

The log-likelihood function takes the form

Log-likelihood formula

Thus, the log-likelihood function takes the form

LL 1

LL 2

LL 3

LL 4

LL 5

LL 6

Thus

LL 7

LL 8

Parameter estimation

Using calculus, LL is maximized when the two partial derivatives are zero.

Mu estimation 1

which implies that

Mu estimation 2

Since

Sigma estimation 1

Sigma estimation 2

It now follows that

Sigma estimation 3

References

Genos, B. F. (2009) Parameter estimation for the Lognormal distribution
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2927&context=etd

Wikipedia (2020) Log-normal distribution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log-normal_distribution

Pavlovic, M. (2022) Formulas & proofs for the log-normal distribution
https://medium.com/@majapavlo/formulas-proofs-for-the-lognormal-distribution-16bc2698644e

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