Robust Distribution‐Free Tests for the Linear Model

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Main Authors: Torey Hilbert, Steven N. MacEachern, Yuan Zhang
Format: Artículo Open Access
Published: Wiley 2026
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author Torey Hilbert
Steven N. MacEachern
Yuan Zhang
author_facet Torey Hilbert
Steven N. MacEachern
Yuan Zhang
Torey Hilbert
Steven N. MacEachern
Yuan Zhang
collection Wiley Open Access
contents Robust Distribution‐Free Tests for the Linear Model Torey Hilbert Steven N. MacEachern Yuan Zhang Statistics in Medicine ABSTRACT Recently, there has been growing concern about heavy‐tailed and skewed noise in biological data. We introduce RobustPALMRT, a flexible permutation framework for testing the association of a covariate of interest adjusted for control covariates. RobustPALMRT controls type I error rate for finite‐samples, even in the presence of heavy‐tailed or skewed noise. The new framework expands the scope of state‐of‐the‐art tests in three directions. First, our method applies to robust and quantile regressions, even with the necessary hyper‐parameter tuning. Second, by separating model‐fitting and model‐evaluation, we discover that performance improves when using a robust loss function in the model‐evaluation step, regardless of how the model is fit. Third, we allow fitting multiple models to detect specialized features of interest in a distribution. To demonstrate this, we introduce DispersionPALMRT, which tests for differences in dispersion between treatment and control groups. We establish theoretical guarantees, identify settings where our method has greater power than existing methods, and analyze existing immunological data on Long‐COVID patients. Using RobustPALMRT, we unveil novel differences between Long‐COVID patients and others even in the presence of highly skewed noise. 10.1002/sim.70404 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
doi_str_mv 10.1002/sim.70404
format Artículo Open Access
id wiley_oa_10_1002_sim_70404
institution Wiley Open Access
license_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
publishDate 2026
publisher Wiley
record_format wiley_oa
spellingShingle Robust Distribution‐Free Tests for the Linear Model
Torey Hilbert
Steven N. MacEachern
Yuan Zhang
Statistics in Medicine
Robust Distribution‐Free Tests for the Linear Model Torey Hilbert Steven N. MacEachern Yuan Zhang Statistics in Medicine ABSTRACT Recently, there has been growing concern about heavy‐tailed and skewed noise in biological data. We introduce RobustPALMRT, a flexible permutation framework for testing the association of a covariate of interest adjusted for control covariates. RobustPALMRT controls type I error rate for finite‐samples, even in the presence of heavy‐tailed or skewed noise. The new framework expands the scope of state‐of‐the‐art tests in three directions. First, our method applies to robust and quantile regressions, even with the necessary hyper‐parameter tuning. Second, by separating model‐fitting and model‐evaluation, we discover that performance improves when using a robust loss function in the model‐evaluation step, regardless of how the model is fit. Third, we allow fitting multiple models to detect specialized features of interest in a distribution. To demonstrate this, we introduce DispersionPALMRT, which tests for differences in dispersion between treatment and control groups. We establish theoretical guarantees, identify settings where our method has greater power than existing methods, and analyze existing immunological data on Long‐COVID patients. Using RobustPALMRT, we unveil novel differences between Long‐COVID patients and others even in the presence of highly skewed noise. 10.1002/sim.70404 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Robust Distribution‐Free Tests for the Linear Model
topic Statistics in Medicine
url https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sim.70404