An Exhaustive Power Comparison of Normality Tests

A goodness-of-fit test is a frequently used modern statistics tool. However, it is still unclear what the most reliable approach is to check assumptions about data set normality. A particular data set (especially with a small number of observations) only partly describes the process, which leaves ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jurgita Arnastauskaitė, Tomas Ruzgas, Mindaugas Bražėnas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
Series:Mathematics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/7/788
Description
Summary:A goodness-of-fit test is a frequently used modern statistics tool. However, it is still unclear what the most reliable approach is to check assumptions about data set normality. A particular data set (especially with a small number of observations) only partly describes the process, which leaves many options for the interpretation of its true distribution. As a consequence, many goodness-of-fit statistical tests have been developed, the power of which depends on particular circumstances (i.e., sample size, outlets, etc.). With the aim of developing a more universal goodness-of-fit test, we propose an approach based on an N-metric with our chosen kernel function. To compare the power of 40 normality tests, the goodness-of-fit hypothesis was tested for 15 data distributions with 6 different sample sizes. Based on exhaustive comparative research results, we recommend the use of our test for samples of size <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>n</mi><mo>≥</mo><mn>118</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>.
ISSN:2227-7390