Robust testing in the logistic regression model

We are interested in testing hypotheses that concern the parameter of a logistic regression model. A robust Wald-type test based on a weighted Bianco and Yohai [ Bianco, A.M., Yohai, V.J., 1996. Robust estimation in the logistic regression model. In: H. Rieder (Ed) Robust Statistics, Data Analysis, and Computer Intensive Methods In: Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol. 109, Springer Verlag, New York, pp. 17-34] estimator, as implemented by Croux and Haesbroeck [Croux, C., Haesbroeck, G., 2003. Implementing the Bianco and Yohai estimator for logistic regression. Computational Statististics and Data Analysis 44, 273-295], is proposed. The asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is derived. We carry out an empirical study to get a further insight into the stability of the p-value. Finally, a Monte Carlo study is performed to investigate the stability of both the level and the power of the test, for different choices of the weight function. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.