Numerical studies for the Rasch model with many items

This paper is concerned with numerical studies on the theoretical results obtained in Strasser [1] and [2]. These papers provide asymptotic expansions for conditional expectations of non i.i.d. Bernoulli trials and their application to the covariance structure of conditional maximum likelihood estimates for the Rasch model. In the present paper systematic numerical studies of the accuracy of the approximations given in Strasser [1] and [2] are presented. It is shown that the order of approximation claimed by the theoretical results can be established numerically.