Testing the homogeneity of several two‐parameter populations

The authors extend Fisher's method of combining two independent test statistics to test homogeneity of several two‐parameter populations. They explore two procedures combining asymptotically independent test statistics: the first pools two likelihood ratio statistics and the other, score test statistics. They then give specific results to test homogeneity of several normal, negative binomial or beta‐binomial populations. Their simulations provide evidence that in this context, Fisher's method performs generally well, even when the statistics to be combined are only asymptotically independent. They are led to recommend Fisher's test based on score statistics, since the latter have simple forms, are easy to calculate, and have uniformly good level properties.     

Some Second-Order Asymptotics for Extreme Value Linear Regression Models

ABSTRACT

In this article we derive finite-sample corrections in matrix notation for likelihood ratio and score statistics in extreme-value linear regression models. We consider three corrected score tests that perform better than the usual score test. We also derive general formulae for second-order biases of maximum likelihood estimates of the linear parameters. Some simulations are performed to compare the likelihood ratio and score statistics with their modified versions and to illustrate the bias correction.     

Asyhptotic efficiency of sequential and non-sequential procedures based on fisher's method of combining tests

In this paper we propose test statistics based on Fisher's method of combining tests for hypotheses involving two or more parameters simultaneously, It Is shown that these tests are asymptotically efficient In the sense of Bahadur, It is then shown how these tests can be modified to give sequential test procedures which are efficient in the sense of Berk and Brown (1978).

The results in section 3 generalize the work of Perng (1977) and Durairajan (1980).     

Exact unconditional testing procedures for comparing two independent Poisson rates

We consider seven exact unconditional testing procedures for comparing adjusted incidence rates between two groups from a Poisson process. Exact tests are always preferable due to the guarantee of test size in small to medium sample settings. Han [Comparing two independent incidence rates using conditional and unconditional exact tests. Pharm Stat. 2008;7(3):195–201] compared the performance of partial maximization p-values based on the Wald test statistic, the likelihood ratio test statistic, the score test statistic, and the conditional p-value. These four testing procedures do not perform consistently, as the results depend on the choice of test statistics for general alternatives. We consider the approach based on estimation and partial maximization, and compare these to the ones studied by Han (2008) for testing superiority. The procedures are compared with regard to the actual type I error rate and power under various conditions. An example from a biomedical research study is provided to illustrate the testing procedures. The approach based on partial maximization using the score test is recommended due to the comparable performance and computational advantage in large sample settings. Additionally, the approach based on estimation and partial maximization performs consistently for all the three test statistics, and is also recommended for use in practice.     

TESTING HYPOTHESES ABOUT THE COMMON MEAN OF TWO NORMAL POPULATIONS

Three tests are considered concerning the common mean of two normal populations: (1) an F test based on a sample from one population, (2) a test based on the addition of the F statistics from independent samples from two popultions (proposed), and (3) a test based on the maximum of the F statistics from two independent samples from two populations. A condition under which test (2) is locally more powerful than test (1) is given. As the test statistic in test (2) does not follow a standard distribution, a formula for approximating the observed significance level is provided. A simulation study is used to compare the power of these tests.     

Testing for normality in linear regression models

The importance of the normal distribution for fitting continuous data is well known. However, in many practical situations data distribution departs from normality. For example, the sample skewness and the sample kurtosis are far away from 0 and 3, respectively, which are nice properties of normal distributions. So, it is important to have formal tests of normality against any alternative. D'Agostino et al. [A suggestion for using powerful and informative tests of normality, Am. Statist. 44 (1990), pp. 316–321] review four procedures Z ²(g ₁), Z ²(g ₂), D and K ² for testing departure from normality. The first two of these procedures are tests of normality against departure due to skewness and kurtosis, respectively. The other two tests are omnibus tests. An alternative to the normal distribution is a class of skew-normal distributions (see [A. Azzalini, A class of distributions which includes the normal ones, Scand. J. Statist. 12 (1985), pp. 171–178]). In this paper, we obtain a score test (W) and a likelihood ratio test (LR) of goodness of fit of the normal regression model against the skew-normal family of regression models. It turns out that the score test is based on the sample skewness and is of very simple form. The performance of these six procedures, in terms of size and power, are compared using simulations. The level properties of the three statistics LR, W and Z ²(g ₁) are similar and close to the nominal level for moderate to large sample sizes. Also, their power properties are similar for small departure from normality due to skewness (γ₁≤0.4). Of these, the score test statistic has a very simple form and computationally much simpler than the other two statistics. The LR statistic, in general, has highest power, although it is computationally much complex as it requires estimates of the parameters under the normal model as well as those under the skew-normal model. So, the score test may be used to test for normality against small departure from normality due to skewness. Otherwise, the likelihood ratio statistic LR should be used as it detects general departure from normality (due to both skewness and kurtosis) with, in general, largest power.     

Evaluating the Accuracy of Small P‐Values In Genetic Association Studies Using Edgeworth Expansions

The asymptotic distributions of many classical test statistics are normal. The resulting approximations are often accurate for commonly used significance levels, 0.05 or 0.01. In genome‐wide association studies, however, the significance level can be as low as 1×10⁻⁷, and the accuracy of the p‐values can be challenging. We study the accuracies of these small p‐values are using two‐term Edgeworth expansions for three commonly used test statistics in GWAS. These tests have nuisance parameters not defined under the null hypothesis but estimable. We derive results for this general form of testing statistics using Edgeworth expansions, and find that the commonly used score test, maximin efficiency robust test and the chi‐squared test are second order accurate in the presence of the nuisance parameter, justifying the use of the p‐values obtained from these tests in the genome‐wide association studies.     

Two-sample Non Randomized Response Techniques for Sensitive Questions

The problem facing most researchers is how to encourage participants to respond, and then to provide truthful response in surveys with sensitive questions. In this article, we consider a non randomized triangular model for testing the equality of the proportions of people with a sensitive characteristic between two independent populations. We derive the Wald, score, and likelihood ratio tests. Their respective sample size formulae are developed as well. Simulation studies are conducted to evaluate the performance of the three proposed test procedures, which show that the score test outperforms the other two.     

NONPARAMETRIC TWO SAMPLE TESTS BASED ON AREA STATISTICS

ABSTRACT

Area statistics are sample versions of areas occurring in a probability plot of two distribution functions F and G. This paper presents a unified basis for five statistics of this type. They can be used for various testing problems in the framework of the two sample problem for independent observations, such as testing equality of distributions against inequality or testing stochastic dominance of distributions in one or either direction against nondominance. Though three of the statistics considered have already been suggested in literature, two of them are new and deserve our interest. The finite sample distributions of the statistics (under F=G) can be calculated via recursion formulae. Two tables with critical values of the new statistics are included. The asymptotic distribution of the properly normalized versions of the area statistics are functionals of the Brownian bridge. The distribution functions and quantiles thereof are obtained by Monte Carlo simulation. Finally, the power functions of the two new tests based on area statistics are compared to the power functions of the tests based on the corresponding supremum statistics, i.e., statistics of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov type.     

The Use of Posterior Predictive P-Values in Testing Goodness-of-Fit

In this article, we introduce two goodness-of-fit tests for testing normality through the concept of the posterior predictive p-value. The discrepancy variables selected are the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) and Berk-Jones (BJ) statistics and the prior chosen is Jeffreys’ prior. The constructed posterior predictive p-values are shown to be distributed independently of the unknown parameters under the null hypothesis, thus they can be taken as the test statistics. It emerges from the simulation that the new tests are more powerful than the corresponding classical tests against most of the alternatives concerned.     

Heteroscedasticity diagnostics in two-phase linear regression models

In two-phase linear regression models, it is a standard assumption that the random errors of two phases have constant variances. However, this assumption is not necessarily appropriate. This paper is devoted to the tests for variance heterogeneity in these models. We initially discuss the simultaneous test for variance heterogeneity of two phases. When the simultaneous test shows that significant heteroscedasticity occurs in the whole model, we construct two individual tests to investigate whether or not both phases or one of them have/has significant heteroscedasticity. Several score statistics and their adjustments based on Cox and Reid [D. R. Cox and N. Reid, Parameter orthogonality and approximate conditional inference. J. Roy. Statist. Soc. Ser. B 49 (1987), pp. 1–39] are obtained and illustrated with Australian onion data. The simulated powers of test statistics are investigated through Monte Carlo methods.     

Local power properties of some asymptotic tests in symmetric linear regression models

In this paper we obtain asymptotic expansions, up to order n^−1/2 and under a sequence of Pitman alternatives, for the nonnull distribution functions of the likelihood ratio, Wald, score and gradient test statistics in the class of symmetric linear regression models. This is a wide class of models which encompasses the t model and several other symmetric distributions with longer-than normal tails. The asymptotic distributions of all four statistics are obtained for testing a subset of regression parameters. Furthermore, in order to compare the finite-sample performance of these tests in this class of models, Monte Carlo simulations are presented. An empirical application to a real data set is considered for illustrative purposes.     

Testing overdispersion in the zero-inflated Poisson model

The zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model is used to account for commonly occurring overdispersion detected in data that are initially analyzed under the zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model. Tests for overdispersion (Wald test, likelihood ratio test [LRT], and score test) based on ZINB model for use in ZIP regression models have been developed. Due to similarity to the ZINB model, we consider the zero-inflated generalized Poisson (ZIGP) model as an alternate model for overdispersed zero-inflated count data. The score test has an advantage over the LRT and the Wald test in that the score test only requires that the parameter of interest be estimated under the null hypothesis. This paper proposes score tests for overdispersion based on the ZIGP model and illustrates that the derived score statistics are exactly the same as the score statistics under the ZINB model. A simulation study indicates the proposed score statistics are preferred to other tests for higher empirical power. In practice, based on the approximate mean–variance relationship in the data, the ZINB or ZIGP model can be considered, and a formal score test based on asymptotic standard normal distribution can be employed for assessing overdispersion in the ZIP model. We provide an example to illustrate the procedures for data analysis.     

Hypothesis Testing of Hazard Ratio Parameters in Marginal Models for Multivariate Failure Time Data

Marginal hazard models for multivariate failure time data have been studied extensively in recent literature. However, standard hypothesis test statistics based on the likelihood method are not exactly appropriate for this kind of model. In this paper, extensions of the three commonly used likelihood hypothesis test statistics are discussed. Generalized Wald, generalized score and generalized likelihood ratio tests for hazard ratio parameters in a marginal hazard model for multivariate failure time data are proposed and their asymptotic distributions examined. The finite sample properties of these statistics are studied through simulations. The proposed method is applied to data from Busselton Population Health Surveys.     

Testing the Fit of Gamma Distributions Using the Empirical Moment Generating Function

ABSTRACT

This article presents goodness-of-fit tests for two and three-parameter gamma distributions that are based on minimum quadratic forms of standardized logarithmic differences of values of the moment generating function and its empirical counterpart. The test statistics can be computed without reliance to special functions and have asymptotic chi-squared distributions. Monte Carlo simulations are used to compare the proposed test for the two-parameter gamma distribution with goodness-of-fit tests employing empirical distribution function or spacing statistics. Two data sets are used to illustrate the various tests.     

Generalized run tests for statistical process control

ABSTRACT

In a sequence of elements, a run is defined as a maximal subsequence of like elements. The number of runs or the length of the longest run has been widely used to test the randomness of an ordered sequence. Based on two different sampling methods and two types of test statistics used, run tests can be classified into one of four cases. Numerous researchers have derived the probability distributions in many different ways, treating each case separately. In the paper, we propose a unified approach which is based on recurrence arguments of two mutually exclusive sub-sequences. We also consider the sequence of nominal data that has more than two classes. Thus, the traditional run tests for a binary sequence are special cases of our generalized run tests. We finally show that the generalized run tests can be applied to many quality management areas, such as testing changes in process variation, developing non-parametric multivariate control charts, and comparing the shapes and locations of more than two process distributions.     

NEYMAN SMOOTH TESTS FOR THE GENERALIZED PARETO DISTRIBUTION

ABSTRACT

The generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) is commonly used as extreme values's distribution. We present goodness of fit tests for the GPD based on Neyman's smooth tests statistics. The methods of maximum likelihood, moments and probability-weighted moments are used for estimating the GPD's parameters. Simulations are done to study the power of these tests.     

A Comparative Study of Model-based Tests of Independence for Ordinal Data Using the Bootstrap

When analyzing categorical data using loglinear models in sparse contingency tables, asymptotic results may fail. In this paper the empirical properties of three commonly used asymptotic tests of independence, based on the uniform association model for ordinal data, are investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulation. Five different bootstrapped tests of independence are presented and compared to the asymptotic tests. The comparisons are made with respect to both size and power properties of the tests. Results indicate that the asymptotic tests have poor size control. The test based on the estimated association parameter is severely conservative and the two chi-squared tests (Pearson, likelihood-ratio) are both liberal. The bootstrap tests that either use a parametric assumption or are based on non-pivotal test statistics do not perform better than the asymptotic tests in all situations. The bootstrap tests that are based on approximately pivotal statistics provide both adjustment of size and enhancement of power. These tests are therefore recommended for use in situations similar to those included in the simulation study.     

Nonnull asymptotic distributions of the LR,Wald, score and gradient statistics in generalized linear models with dispersion covariates

The class of generalized linear models with dispersion covariates, which allows us to jointly model the mean and dispersion parameters, is a natural extension to the classical generalized linear models. In this paper, we derive the asymptotic expansions under a sequence of Pitman alternatives (up to order n ^?1/2) for the nonnull distribution functions of the likelihood ratio, Wald, Rao score and gradient statistics in this class of models. The asymptotic distributions of these statistics are obtained for testing a subset of regression parameters and for testing a subset of dispersion parameters. Based on these nonnull asymptotic expansions, the power of all four tests, which are equivalent to first order, are compared. Furthermore, we consider Monte Carlo simulations in order to compare the finite-sample performance of these tests in this class of models. We present two empirical applications to two real data sets for illustrative purposes.     

The performance of tests when observations have different variances

It is common to test if there is an effect due to a treatment. The commonly used tests have the assumption that the observations differ in location, and that their variances are the same over the groups. Different variances can arise if the observations being analyzed are means of different numbers of observations on individuals or slopes of growth curves with missing data. This study is concerned with cases in which the unequal variances are known, or known to a constant of proportionality. It examines the performance of the ttest, the Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon Rank Sum test, the Median test, and the Van der Waerden test under these conditions. The t-test based on the weighted means is the likelihood ratio test under normality and has the usual optimality properties. The other tests are compared to it. One may align and scale the observations by subtracting the mean and dividing by the standard deviation of each point. This leads to other, analogous test statistics based on these adjusted observations. These statistics are also compared. Finally, the regression scores tests are compared to the other procedures.