Empirical likelihood ratio tests for multivariate regression models

This paper proposes some diagnostic tools for checking the adequacy of multivariate regression models including classical regression and time series autoregression. In statistical inference, the empirical likelihood ratio method has been well known to be a powerful tool for constructing test and confidence region. For model checking, however, the naive empirical likelihood (EL) based tests are not of Wilks' phenomenon. Hence, we make use of bias correction to construct the EL-based score tests and derive a nonparametric version of Wilks' theorem. Moreover, by the advantages of both the EL and score test method, the EL-based score tests share many desirable features as follows: They are self-scale invariant and can detect the alternatives that converge to the null at rate n -1/2, the possibly fastest rate for lack-of-fit testing; they involve weight functions, which provides us with the flexibility to choose scores for improving power performance, especially under directional alternatives. Furthermore, when the alternatives are not directional, we construct asymptotically distribution-free maximin tests for a large class of possible alternatives. A simulation study is carried out and an application for a real dataset is analyzed. © Higher Education Press 2007.