A new exact p-value approach for testing variance homogeneity

Abstract

To test variance homogeneity, various likelihood-ratio based tests such as the Bartlett's test have been proposed. The null distributions of these tests were generally derived asymptotically or approximately. We re-examine the restrictive maximum likelihood ratio (RELR) statistic, and suggest a Monte Carlo algorithm to compute its exact null distribution, and so its p-value. It is much easier to implement than most existing methods. Simulation studies indicate that the proposed procedure is also superior to its competitors in terms of type I error and powers. We analyse an environmental dataset for an illustration.