Improved likelihood ratio tests for complete contingency tables

Abstract

SUMMARY Lawley (1956) describes how asymptotic likelihood ratio tests can in general be improved by multiplying the −2logλtest statistic by a multiplier chosen so that the null distribution of the modified statistic is better approximated by its asymptotic X 2 distribution. This paper applies this technique to asymptotic likelihood ratio tests of hypotheses concerning complete contingency tables. Improved tests are derived for hypotheses with closed form maximum likelihood estimators.