Characterization-based approach for construction of goodness-of-fit test for Lévy distribution

Abstract

The Lévy distribution, alongside the Normal and Cauchy distributions, is one of the only three stable distributions whose density can be obtained in a closed form. However, there are only a few specific goodness-of-fit tests for the Lévy distribution. In this paper, two novel classes of goodness-of-fit tests for the Lévy distribution are proposed. Both tests are based on V-empirical Laplace transforms. New tests are scale free under the null hypothesis, which makes them suitable for testing the composite hypothesis. The finite sample and limiting properties of test statistics are obtained. In addition, a generalization of the recent Bhati–Kattumannil goodness-of-fit test to the Lévy distribution is considered. For assessing the quality of novel and competitor tests, the local Bahadur efficiencies are computed, and a wide power study is conducted. Both criteria clearly demonstrate the quality of the new tests. The applicability of the novel tests is demonstrated with two real-data examples.