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The emperor's new clothes: a critique of the multivariate t regression model
Author(s) -
Breusch T. S.,
Robertson J. C.,
Welsh A. H.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
statistica neerlandica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1467-9574
pISSN - 0039-0402
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9574.00055
Subject(s) - frequentist inference , multivariate statistics , spurious relationship , multivariate normal distribution , robustness (evolution) , econometrics , mathematics , inference , statistical inference , regression , statistics , bayesian probability , bayesian inference , computer science , artificial intelligence , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
Zellner (1976) proposed a regression model in which the data vector (or the error vector) is represented as a realization from the multivariate Student t distribution. This model has attracted considerable attention because it seems to broaden the usual Gaussian assumption to allow for heavier‐tailed error distributions. A number of results in the literature indicate that the standard inference procedures for the Gaussian model remain appropriate under the broader distributional assumption, leading to claims of robustness of the standard methods. We show that, although mathematically the two models are different, for purposes of statistical inference they are indistinguishable. The empirical implications of the multivariate t model are precisely the same as those of the Gaussian model. Hence the suggestion of a broader distributional representation of the data is spurious, and the claims of robustness are misleading. These conclusions are reached from both frequentist and Bayesian perspectives.