Goodness-of-fit tests based on Kullback-Leibler discrimination information

Abstract

We present a general methodology for developing asymptotically distribution-free goodness-of-fit tests based on the Kullback-Leibler discrimination information. The tests are shown to be omnibus within an extremely large class of nonparametric global alternatives and to have good local power. The proposed test procedure is a nonparametric extension of the classical Neyman-Pearson log-likelihood ratio test and is based on mth-order spacings between order statistics cross-validated by the observed log likelihood. The developed method also generalizes Cox's procedure of testing separate families and covers virtually all parametric families of distributions encountered in statistics. It can also be viewed as a procedure based on sum-log functionals of nonparametric density-quantile estimators cross-validated by the log likelihood. With its good power properties, the method provides an extremely simple and potentially much better alternative to the classical empirical distribution function (EDF)-based test procedures. The important problem of selecting the order of spacings m in practice is also considered and a method based on maximizing the sample entropy constrained by the observed log likelihood is proposed. This data driven method of choosing m is demonstrated by Monte Carlo simulations to be more powerful than deterministic choices of m and thus provides a practically useful tool for implementing our test procedure.