Checking the adequacy of the multivariate semiparametric location shift model

Let X,X₁,…,X_m,…, Y,Y₁,…,Y_n,… be independent d-dimensional random vectors, where the X_j are i.i.d. copies of X, and the Y_k are i.i.d. copies of Y. We study a class of consistent tests for the hypothesis that Y has the same distribution as X+μ for some unspecified . The test statistic L is a weighted integral of the squared modulus of the difference of the empirical characteristic functions of and Y₁,…,Y_n, where is an estimator of μ. An alternative representation of L is given in terms of an L²-distance between two nonparametric density estimators. The finite-sample and asymptotic null distribution of L is independent of μ. Carried out as a bootstrap or permutation procedure, the test is asymptotically of a given size, irrespective of the unknown underlying distribution. A large-scale simulation study shows that the permutation procedure performs better than the bootstrap.