A density based empirical likelihood approach for testing bivariate normality

ABSTRACT

Sample entropy based tests, methods of sieves and Grenander estimation type procedures are known to be very efficient tools for assessing normality of underlying data distributions, in one-dimensional nonparametric settings. Recently, it has been shown that the density based empirical likelihood (EL) concept extends and standardizes these methods, presenting a powerful approach for approximating optimal parametric likelihood ratio test statistics, in a distribution-free manner. In this paper, we discuss difficulties related to constructing density based EL ratio techniques for testing bivariate normality and propose a solution regarding this problem. Toward this end, a novel bivariate sample entropy expression is derived and shown to satisfy the known concept related to bivariate histogram density estimations. Monte Carlo results show that the new density based EL ratio tests for bivariate normality behave very well for finite sample sizes. To exemplify the excellent applicability of the proposed approach, we demonstrate a real data example.

KEYWORDS:

• Bivariate normality
• density estimation
• empirical likelihood
• entropy
• goodness-of-fit
• histogram density estimation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Dr Vexler's effort was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [grant 1G13LM012241-01].