Two permutation tests of equality of variances

The F-ratio test for equality of dispersion in two samples is by no means robust, while non-parametric tests either assume a common median, or are not very powerful. Two new permutation tests are presented, which do not suffer from either of these problems. Algorithms for Monte Carlo calculation of P values and confidence intervals are given, and the performance of the tests are studied and compared using Monte Carlo simulations for a range of distributional types. The methods used to speed up Monte Carlo calculations, e.g. stratification, are of wider applicability.     

The power function and an approximation for testing variance components in the presence of interaction in two-way random effects models

In this paper we consider a two-way layout random-effects model with interaction proportional to the product of two random components and derive the distributions of the sums of squares and the F-ratio under the usual normality assumption for the random effects. Approximations to these distributions by finite series Laguerre polynomial expansions are then developed. Some numerical results are given to illustrate the applications of the theory.