On asymptotic non-normality of null distributions of mrpp statistics

Severe departures from normality occur frequently for null distributions of statistics associated with applications of mulLi-response permutation procedures (MRPP) for either small or large finite populations. This paper describes the commonly encountered situation associated with asymptotic non-normality for null distributions of MRPP statistics which does not depend on the underlying multivariate distribution. In addition, this paper establishes the existence of a non-degenerate underlying distribution for which the null distributions of MRPP statistics are asymptotically non-normal for essentially all size structure configurations. It is known that MRPP statistics are symmetric versions of a broader class of statistics, most of which are asymmetric. Because of the non-normality associated with null distributions of MRPP statistics, this paper includes necessary results for inferences based on the exact first three moments of anv statistic in this broader class (analogous to existing results for MRPP statistics).     

A simple nonparametric test for bivariate symmetry about a line

Over the years many researchers have dealt with testing the hypotheses of symmetry in univariate and multivariate distributions in the parametric and nonparametric setup. In a multivariate setup, there are several formulations of symmetry, for example, symmetry about an axis, joint symmetry, marginal symmetry, radial symmetry, symmetry about a known point, spherical symmetry, and elliptical symmetry among others. In this paper, for the bivariate case, we formulate a concept of symmetry about a straight line passing through the origin in a plane and accordingly develop a simple nonparametric test for testing the hypothesis of symmetry about a straight line. The proposed test is based on a measure of deviance between observed counts of bivariate samples in suitably defined pairs of sets. The exact null distribution and non-null distribution, for specified classes of alternatives, of the test statistics are obtained. The null distribution is tabulated for sample size from n=5 up to n=30. The null mean, null variance and the asymptotic null distributions of the proposed test statistics are also obtained. The empirical power of the proposed test is evaluated by simulating samples from the suitable class of bivariate distributions. The empirical findings suggest that the test performs reasonably well against various classes of asymmetric bivariate distributions. Further, it is advocated that the basic idea developed in this work can be easily adopted to test the hypotheses of exchangeability of bivariate random variables and also bivariate symmetry about a given axis which have been considered by several authors in the past.     

Further asymptotic expansions of the distribution of the sphericity test

In this paper new asymptotic expansions of the distributions of the sphericity test criterion are obtained in the null and the non-null case when the alternatives are close to the hypothesis. These expansions are obtained for the first time in terms of beta distributions. These appear to be better than the ones available in the literature.     

Bayesian inference for bisexual galton-watson processes

In this work, an approach to the Bayesian estimation in a bisexual Galton-Watson process is considered. First we study an important parametric case assuming offspring distribution belonging to the bivariate series power family of distributions and then, we continue to investigate the nonparametric case. In both situations, Bayes estimators under weighted squared error loss function, for means, variances and covariance of the off spring distribution are obtained. For the superadditive case, the Bayes estimation of the asymptotic growth rate is also considered. Illustrative examples are given.     

The Multi-Sample Block-Scalar Sphericity Test: Exact and Near-Exact Distributions for Its Likelihood Ratio Test Statistic

In this article the authors show how by adequately decomposing the null hypothesis of the multi-sample block-scalar sphericity test it is possible to obtain the likelihood ratio test statistic as well as a different look over its exact distribution. This enables the construction of well-performing near-exact approximations for the distribution of the test statistic, whose exact distribution is quite elaborate and non-manageable. The near-exact distributions obtained are manageable and perform much better than the available asymptotic distributions, even for small sample sizes, and they show a good asymptotic behavior for increasing sample sizes as well as for increasing number of variables and/or populations involved.     

Testing for Threshold Diffusion

The threshold diffusion model assumes a piecewise linear drift term and a piecewise smooth diffusion term, which constitutes a rich model for analyzing nonlinear continuous-time processes. We consider the problem of testing for threshold nonlinearity in the drift term. We do this by developing a quasi-likelihood test derived under the working assumption of a constant diffusion term, which circumvents the problem of generally unknown functional form for the diffusion term. The test is first developed for testing for one threshold at which the drift term breaks into two linear functions. We show that under some mild regularity conditions, the asymptotic null distribution of the proposed test statistic is given by the distribution of certain functional of some centered Gaussian process. We develop a computationally efficient method for calibrating the p-value of the test statistic by bootstrapping its asymptotic null distribution. The local power function is also derived, which establishes the consistency of the proposed test. The test is then extended to testing for multiple thresholds. We demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed test by simulations. Using the proposed test, we examine the evidence of nonlinearity in the term structure of a long time series of U.S. interest rates.     

Bootstrap LR tests of stationarity,common trends and cointegration

This paper considers the likelihood ratio (LR) tests of stationarity, common trends and cointegration for multivariate time series. As the distribution of these tests is not known, a bootstrap version is proposed via a state- space representation. The bootstrap samples are obtained from the Kalman filter innovations under the null hypothesis. Monte Carlo simulations for the Gaussian univariate random walk plus noise model show that the bootstrap LR test achieves higher power for medium-sized deviations from the null hypothesis than a locally optimal and one-sided Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test that has a known asymptotic distribution. The power gains of the bootstrap LR test are significantly larger for testing the hypothesis of common trends and cointegration in multivariate time series, as the alternative asymptotic procedure – obtained as an extension of the LM test of stationarity – does not possess properties of optimality. Finally, it is shown that the (pseudo-)LR tests maintain good size and power properties also for the non-Gaussian series. An empirical illustration is provided.     

Distributions of lrt associated with two-parameter exponential distributions

In this paper, an exact distribution of the likelihood ratio criterion for testing the equality of p two-parameter exponential distributions is obtained for unequal sample sizes in a computational form. A useful asymptotic expansion of the distribution is also obtained up to the order of n^-4 with the second term of the order of n^-3 and so can be used to obtain accurate approximations to the critical values of the test statistic even for comparatively small values of n where n is the combined sample size. In fact the first term alone which is a single beta distribution provides a powerful approximation for moderately large values of n.     

A multivariate pareto distribution

In this paper, we introduce a new multivariate pareto (MVP) distribution with many interesting properties. we extend the results of characterization of univariate and bivariate pareto distributions given by Krishnaji (1970) and veenus and Nair (1994) respectively. We also extend the property of dullness of univariate pareto distribution given by Talwalkar (1980) to the multivariate pareto case. We obtain the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) of the parameters and their asymptotic multivariate normal (AMVN) distrioutions. We propose large sample studentized test for testing independence and identical marginals of the components.     

Asymptotic normality of estimators for parameters of a multivariate skew-normal distribution

In this paper, asymptotic normality is established for the parameters of the multivariate skew-normal distribution under two parametrizations. Also, an analytic expression and an asymptotic normal law are derived for the skewness vector of the skew-normal distribution. The estimates are derived using the method of moments. Convergence to the asymptotic distributions is examined both computationally and in a simulation experiment.     

Likelihood Inference for Multivariate Extreme Value Distributions Whose Spectral Vectors have known Conditional Distributions

Multivariate extreme value statistical analysis is concerned with observations on several variables which are thought to possess some degree of tail dependence. The main approaches to inference for multivariate extremes consist in approximating either the distribution of block component‐wise maxima or the distribution of the exceedances over a high threshold. Although the expressions of the asymptotic density functions of these distributions may be characterized, they cannot be computed in general. In this paper, we study the case where the spectral random vector of the multivariate max‐stable distribution has known conditional distributions. The asymptotic density functions of the multivariate extreme value distributions may then be written through univariate integrals that are easily computed or simulated. The asymptotic properties of two likelihood estimators are presented, and the utility of the method is examined via simulation.     

Multivariate hypothesis testing using generalized and {2}-inverses – with applications

The use of generalized inverses in Wald's-type quadratic forms of test statistics having singular normal limiting distributions does not guarantee to obtain chi-square limiting distributions. In this article, the use of {2} -inverses for that problem is investigated. Alternatively, Imhof-based test statistics can also be defined, which converge in distribution to weighted sum of chi-square variables. The asymptotic distributions of these test statistics under the null and alternative hypotheses are discussed. Under fixed and local alternatives, the asymptotic powers are compared theoretically. Simulation studies are also performed to compare the exact powers of the test statistics in finite samples. A data analysis on the temperature and precipitation variability in the European Alps illustrates the proposed methods.     

Testing for multivariate heteroscedasticity

In this article, we propose a testing technique for multivariate heteroscedasticity, which is expressed as a test of linear restrictions in a multivariate regression model. Four test statistics with known asymptotical null distributions are suggested, namely the Wald, Lagrange multiplier (LM), likelihood ratio (LR) and the multivariate Rao F-test. The critical values for the statistics are determined by their asymptotic null distributions, but bootstrapped critical values are also used. The size, power and robustness of the tests are examined in a Monte Carlo experiment. Our main finding is that all the tests limit their nominal sizes asymptotically, but some of them have superior small sample properties. These are the F, LM and bootstrapped versions of Wald and LR tests.     

Testing the homogeneity of risk differences with sparse count data

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we consider testing the homogeneity of risk differences in independent binomial distributions especially when data are sparse. We point out some drawback of existing tests in either controlling a nominal size or obtaining powers through theoretical and numerical studies. The proposed test is designed to avoid the drawbacks of existing tests. We present the asymptotic null distribution and asymptotic power function for the proposed test. We also provide numerical studies including simulations and real data examples showing the proposed test has reliable results compared to existing testing procedures.     

Asymptotic expansions of the distributions of the chi-square statistic based on the asymptotically distribution-free theory in covariance structures

An asymptotic expansion of the null distribution of the chi-square statistic based on the asymptotically distribution-free theory for general covariance structures is derived under non-normality. The added higher-order term in the approximate density is given by a weighted sum of those of the chi-square distributed variables with different degrees of freedom. A formula for the corresponding Bartlett correction is also shown without using the above asymptotic expansion. Under a fixed alternative hypothesis, the Edgeworth expansion of the distribution of the standardized chi-square statistic is given up to order O(1/n). From the intermediate results of the asymptotic expansions for the chi-square statistics, asymptotic expansions of the joint distributions of the parameter estimators both under the null and fixed alternative hypotheses are derived up to order O(1/n).     

On some tests for a multivariate linear functional relationship with replication

For testing problems of the coefficient vector and the interception of multivariate linear functional relationship with replicated observations, the likelihood ratio test statistics are considered. Their asymptotic distributions are obtained under each null hypothesis respectively.     

A test for bivariate symmetry based on the empirical distribution function

Hollander (1970) proposed a conditionally distribution-free test of bivariate symmetry based on the empirical distribution function. In this paper Hollander’s test statistic is examined In greater detail: in particular; its conditional asymptotic distribution is derived under the null hypothesis as well as under a sequence of local alternatives. Percentage points of the asymptotic distribution are presented; a power comparison between Hollander’s statistic and the likelihood ratio criterion in testing a variant of the sphericity hypothesis in multivariate analysis is made.     

Statistical analysis of a class of factor time series models

For a class of factor time series models, which is called a multivariate time series variance component (MTV) models, we consider the problem of testing whether an observed time series belongs to this class. We propose the test statistic, and derive its symptotic null distribution. Asymptotic optimality of the proposed test is discussed in view of the local asymptotic normality. Also, numerical evaluation of the local power illuminates some interesting features of the test.     

A general procedure for deriving distributions

A general procedure for deriving the exact and asymptotic distributions of a certain class of test statistics in multivariate analysis is proposed. The method is based on an asymptotic expansion of gamma ratios in terms of generalized Bernoulli polynomials. The exact and asymptotic results are obtained and the method is illustrated in the problem of testing linear hypotheses in the multinomial case. In this problem the method yields Box's (1949) expansion as a special case.     

Variance Shifts,Structural Breaks,and Stationarity Tests

This article considers the problem of testing the null hypothesis of stochastic stationarity in time series characterized by variance shifts at some (known or unknown) point in the sample. It is shown that existing stationarity tests can be severely biased in the presence of such shifts, either oversized or undersized, with associated spurious power gains or losses, depending on the values of the breakpoint parameter and on the ratio of the prebreak to postbreak variance. Under the assumption of a serially independent Gaussian error term with known break date and known variance ratio, a locally best invariant (LBI) test of the null hypothesis of stationarity in the presence of variance shifts is then derived. Both the test statistic and its asymptotic null distribution depend on the breakpoint parameter and also, in general, on the variance ratio. Modifications of the LBI test statistic are proposed for which the limiting distribution is independent of such nuisance parameters and belongs to the family of Cramér–von Mises distributions. One such modification is particularly appealing in that it is simultaneously exact invariant to variance shifts and to structural breaks in the slope and/or level of the series. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the power loss from using our modified statistics in place of the LBI statistic is not large, even in the neighborhood of the null hypothesis, and particularly for series with shifts in the slope and/or level. The tests are extended to cover the cases of weakly dependent error processes and unknown breakpoints. The implementation of the tests are illustrated using output, inflation, and exchange rate data series.