Inference based on the affine invariant multivariate Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon statistic

A new affine invariant multivariate analogue of the two-sample Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon test based on the Oja criterion function is introduced. The associated affine equivariant estimate of shift, the multivariate Hodges-Lehmann estimate, is also considered. Asymptotic theory is developed to provide approximations for null distribution as well as for a sequence of contiguous alternatives to consider limiting efficiencies of the test and estimate. The theory is illustrated by an example. Hettmansperger et al. [9] considered alternative slightly different affine invariant extensions also based on the Oja criterion. The methods proposed in this paper are computationally more intensive, but surpri…