A comparison of some nonparametric tests for the simple tree alternative

This paper develops a new test statistic for testing hypotheses of the form H_O M₀=M₁=…=M_k versus H_a: M₀≦M₁,M₂,…,M_k] where at least one inequality is strict. M₀ is the median of the control population and M₁ is the median of the population receiving trearment i, i=1,2,…,k. The population distributions are assumed to be unknown but to differ only in their location parameters if at all. A simulation study is done comparing the new test statistic with the Chacko and the Kruskal-Wallis when the underlying population distributions are either normal, uniform, exponential, or Cauchy. Sample sizes of five, eight, ten, and twenty were considered. The new test statistic did better than the Chacko and the Kruskal-Wallis when the medians of the populations receiving the treatments were approximately the same