TESTS FOR INDEPENDENCE IN THE PRESENCE OF MISSING VALUES

The locally most powerful rank test is derived for testing independence of two random variables with possible missing observations on both responses. The test statistic has a simple form and can be easily obtained. For the purpose of practical use, the asymptotic null distribution of the test statistic is also provided.     

ASYMPTOTIC EFFICIENCY OF THE BLEST‐TYPE TESTS FOR INDEPENDENCE

Blest (2000, Aust. N. Z. J. Stat. 42 , 101–111) proposed a new measure of rank correlation that is sensitive to discrepancies in the small ranks. This paper investigates the efficiency properties of non‐parametric tests for independence based on Blest's correlation coefficient and its modifications. Pitman efficiency comparisons are made with analogous tests existing in the literature. Conditions for Pitman optimality of the Blest‐type tests are established.     

BAYESIAN TESTS FOR SOME PRECISE HYPOTHESES ON MULTI-NORMAL MEANS

Bayesian counterparts of some standard tests concerning the means of multi-normal distribution are discussed. In particular the hypothesis that the multi-normal mean is equal to a specified value, and the hypothesis that the means are equal. Lower bounds on the Bayes factor in favour of the null hypothesis are obtained over the class of conjugate priors. The P-value, or observed significance level of the standard sampling-theoretic test procedure are compared with the posterior probability. The results correspond closely with those of Good (1967), Berger & Sellke (1987), Pepple (1988) and others and illustrate the conflict between posterior probabilities and P-values as measures of evidence.     

ON ASYMPTOTIC OPTIMALITY OF SOME TESTS FOR EXPONENTIAL DISTRIBUTIONS

The probability density function (pdf) of a two parameter exponential distribution is given by f(x; p, s?) =s?^-1 exp {-(x - ρ)/s?} for x≥ρ and 0 elsewhere, where 0 < ρ < ∞ and 0 < s?∞. Suppose we have k independent random samples where the ith sample is drawn from the ith population having the pdf f(x; ρ_i, s?_i), 0 < ρ_i < ∞, 0 < s?_i < s?_i < and f(x; ρ, s?) is as given above. Let X_i1 < X_i2 <… < X_iri denote the first r_i order statistics in a random sample of size n_i, drawn from the ith population with pdf f(x; ρ_i, s?_i), i = 1, 2,…, k. In this paper we show that the well known tests of hypotheses about the parameters ρ_i, s?_i, i = 1, 2,…, k based on the above observations are asymptotically optimal in the sense of Bahadur efficiency. Our results are similar to those for normal distributions.     

A METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE ASYMPTOTIC EFFICIENCY OF SOME SEQUENTIAL PROBABILITY RATIO TESTS

This paper gives a method for decomposing many sequential probability ratio tests into smaller independent components called “modules”. A function of some characteristics of modules can be used to determine the asymptotically most efficient of a set of statistical tests in which a, the probability of type I error equals β, the probability of type II error. The same test is seen also to give the asymptotically most efficient of the corresponding set of tests in which a is not equal to β. The “module” method is used to give an explanation for the super-efficiency of the play-the-winner and play-the-loser rules in two-sample binomial sampling. An example showing how complex cases can be analysed numerically using this method is also given.     

APPROXIMATIONS TO SOME TEST STATISTICS FOR PERMUTATION TESTS IN A COMPLETELY RANDOMIZED DESIGN1

Under a randomization model for a completely randomized design permutation tests are considered based on the usual F statistic and on a multi-response permutation procedure statistic. For the first statistic the first two moments are obtained so a comparision with the distribution under the normal theory model can be made. The second statistic is shown to converge in distribution to an infinite weighted sum of chi-squared variates, the weights being the limits of the eigenvalues of a matrix depending on the distance measure used and the order statistics of the observations.     

INDEPENDENCE DISTRIBUTION-PRESERVING NONNEGATIVE-DEFINITE COVARIANCE STRUCTURES FOR THE SAMPLE VARIANCE

This paper explicitly characterizes the general nonnegative-definite covariance structure for a multivariate normal random vector such that the univariate sample variance is distributed exactly as if the sample observations are normal independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.). This work extends the results of Baldessari (1965) and Stadje (1984) who have characterized the general positive-definite covariance matrix such that the univariate sample variance is distributed exactly as if the sample observations are normal i.i.d.     

A TEST OF INDEPENDENCE FOR BIVARIATE SYMMETRIC STABLE DISTRIBUTIONS

A test of independence in symmetric bivariate stable distributions is constructed using the empirical characteristic function as a test statistic. A particular class of distributions considered in detail is X = U + V, Y=V+W where U, V, and W are mutually independent symmetric stable distributions with the same index.     

GROUPING CORRECTIONS FOR SEQUENTIAL TESTS

When testing sequentially with grouped data, we may or may not adjust the test statistic to allow for the grouping. If the test statistic is not adjusted, the whole power curve will be altered by the grouping, while if the statistic is adjusted, the power curve is altered, but the probability levels or errors of the first and second kind, being distribution-free, are unchanged. It is shown, even for very coarse grouping of the data, that the power curve is only slightly affected by using the unadjusted statistic for tests on the mean or the variance of a normal distribution. For certain other distributions, however, in particular the negative exponential distribution, this procedure breaks down completely if the group width exceeds a certain value.     

ON ENTROPY BASED TESTS FOR EXPONENTIALITY

ABSTRACT

Recent literature has proposed a test for exponentiality based on sample entropy. We consider transformations of the observations which turn the test of exponentiality into one of uniformity and use a corresponding test based on entropy. The test based on the transformed variables performs better in many cases of interest.     

SMOOTH TESTS FOR THE BIVARIATE POISSON DISTRIBUTION

A theorem of Rayner & Best (1989) is generalised to permit the construction of smooth tests of goodness of fit without requiring a set of orthonormal functions on the hypothesised distribution. This result is used to construct smooth tests for the bivariate Poisson distribution. The test due to Crockett (1979) is similar to a smooth test that assesses the variance structure under the bivariate Poisson model; the test due to Loukas & Kemp (1986) is related to a smooth test that seeks to detect a particular linear relationship between the variances and covariance under the bivariate Poisson model. Using focused smooth tests may be more informative than using previously suggested tests. The distribution of the Loukas & Kemp (1986) statistic is not well approximated by the x²distribution for larger correlations, and a revised statistic is suggested.     

ON TESTS OF SYMMETRY FOR DISCRETE POPULATIONS

In this paper problems of tests of symmetry about the origin with discrete samples are considered. Recently Vorli?ková established the asymptotic normality of linear rank statistics and signed rank statistics in [5] and [6]. Here we propose statistics which are conditionally the sum of independent variables, including the locally most powerful tests for a one sided one parameter family. Their asymptotic distributions are derived under the null hypothesis and the contiguous rounding off location alternatives. We propose four types of signed rank tests and investigate their properties.     

GOODNESS-OF-FIT TESTS FOR FISHER'S DISTRIBUTION ON THE SPHERE

A set of three goodness-of-fit procedures is proposed to investigate the adequacy of fit of Fisher's distribution on the sphere as a model for a given sample of spherical data. The procedures are all based on standard tests using the empirical distribution function.     

TESTS FOR SEASONAL DIFFERENCING WITH AN UNKNOWN BREAK-POINT

Some Lagrange multiplier tests for seasonal differencing are proposed; their main objective is to avoid over-differencing due to structural change. The null hypothesis is either the presence of both regular and seasonal unit roots or the presence of a seasonal unit root. Alternative hypotheses allow for stationarity around a possible structural change where the break-point is unknown. The location of the structural change is estimated using the proposed procedures, the asymptotic distribution of the test statistics under the null hypothesis is derived and some useful percentiles are tabulated. An illustrative example based on the Canadian Consumer Price Index is presented.     

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.     

INTRINSIC PRIORS FOR TWO-SAMPLE TESTS IN NORMAL POPULATIONS

ABSTRACT

There have been considerable amounts of work regarding the development of various default Bayes factors in model selection and hypothesis testing. Two commonly used criteria, the intrinsic Bayes factor and the fractional Bayes factor are compared to test two independent normal means and variances. We also derive several intrinsic priors whose Bayes factors are asymptotically equivalent to the respective Bayes factors. We demonstrate our results in simulated datasets.     

IMPROVED SCORE TESTS FOR VON MISES REGRESSION MODELS

We present, in matrix notation, a finite-sample correction formula to improve score tests in von Mises regression models with concentration covariates. The formula only requires simple operations on matrices and can be used to obtain analytically closed-form corrections for score test statistics in a variety of special von Mises models. The paper also provides a numerical comparison of the size of two score test statistics with bootstrap-based critical values.     

CRITICAL VALUE APPROXIMATIONS FOR TESTS OF LINEAR REGRESSION DISTURBANCES

Two important classes of tests for non-spherical disturbances in the linear regression model involve test statistics whose null distributions and hence critical values depend on the regressors. This paper investigates the accuracy of the normal, two moment beta and four moment beta approximations to the critical values of such tests. An empirical experiment aimed at evaluating the accuracy of the approximations for a variety of tests against autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity is conducted. Overall the approximations are found to provide reasonably accurate critical values with skewness being a factor determining the degree of accuracy.     

ON TESTS FOR INTERACTION IN A NONREPLICATED TWO-WAY LAYOUT

The paper proposes tests for interaction in a two-way table with one observation per cell. The power of these tests is independent of the additive main effects in the linear model. This is an advantage compared to a test suggested earlier, which has low power if main effects are very variable.