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Comparing distributions by multiple testing across quantiles or CDF values

Matt Goldman, David M. Kaplan

arXiv 15 Aug 2017 · Mathematics — Statistics Theory · publishedJournal of Econometrics (2018) · 76 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1708.04658 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

When comparing two distributions, it is often helpful to learn at which quantiles or values there is a statistically significant difference. This provides more information than the binary "reject" or "do not reject" decision of a global goodness-of-fit test. Framing our question as multiple testing across the continuum of quantiles $\tau\in(0,1)$ or values $r\in\mathbb{R}$, we show that the Kolmogorov--Smirnov test (interpreted as a multiple testing procedure) achieves strong control of the familywise error rate. However, its well-known flaw of low sensitivity in the tails remains. We provide an alternative method that retains such strong control of familywise error rate while also having even sensitivity, i.e., equal pointwise type I error rates at each of $n\to\infty$ order statistics across the distribution. Our one-sample method computes instantly, using our new formula that also instantly computes goodness-of-fit $p$-values and uniform confidence bands. To improve power, we also propose stepdown and pre-test procedures that maintain control of the asymptotic familywise error rate. One-sample and two-sample cases are considered, as well as extensions to regression discontinuity designs and conditional distributions. Simulations, empirical examples, and code are provided.

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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
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2Lehmann, E. L., Romano, J. P (2005) b0.9507586%
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6Banks, D. L (1988) Histospline smoothing the Bayesian bootstrap0.84333100%
7Eicker, F (1979) The asymptotic distribution of the suprema of the standardized empirical processes0.81142100%
8Goldman, M., Kaplan, D. M (2017) b self0.7375340%
9Moscovich, A., Nadler, B., Spiegelman, C (2016) On the exact Berk–Jones statistics and their $p$-value calculation0.73732100%
10Canay, I. A., Kamat, V (2017) Approximate permutation tests and induced order statistics in the regression discontinuity design0.7257257%

Showing the top 10 of 52 scored citations.

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