Existence of MLEs for discrete linear exponential models

Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the existence of an MLE for log-linear and regression models for contingency tables. A partial compactification of the parameter space is used to elucidate a more abstract compactification given by Lauritzen [14]. A modification of the Newton-Raphson approximation yields MLEs in the partial compactification. This work was done while the author was Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Arizona State University, Tempe 85281.