Setting coeff values

[trainee]

Hope everyone is doing well. So I have a bit of a puzzle.

I was running into a Near Singular Matrix problem when trying to solve a system of equations. It seems to go away when I set coefficients to a certain value (say 1) and then estimate them.

Any insights?

[EViews Gareth]

At certain starting values the non-linear problem is singular. At other starting values it is not.

[trainee]

What do you exactly mean by a non-linear problem? More than one solution?

[EViews Gareth]

Whatever equation you're trying to estimate is probably non-linear in the coefficients.

[trainee]

Thanks Gareth.

Do you mind explaining what you mean by 'non-linear in the coefficients'?

[EViews Gareth]

The specification you've defined is not a linear relationship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_regression