Gamma Statistical Test

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A Gamma Statistical Test is a measure of rank correlation that tests the similarity of ranked pairs of variables.



References

2016

This statistic (which is distinct from Goodman and Kruskal's lambda) is named after Leo Goodman and William Kruskal, who proposed it in a series of papers from 1954 to 1972.
Definition: The estimate of gamma, G, depends on two quantities:
  • Ns, the number of pairs of cases ranked in the same order on both variables (number of concordant pairs),
  • Nd, the number of pairs of cases ranked in reversed order on both variables (number of reversed pairs),
where "ties" are dropped. That is cases where either of the two variables in the pair are equal.
Then
[math]\displaystyle{ G=\frac{N_s-N_d}{N_s+N_d}\ . }[/math]
This statistic can be regarded as the maximum likelihood estimator for the theoretical quantity [math]\displaystyle{ \gamma }[/math], where
[math]\displaystyle{ \gamma=\frac{P_s-P_d}{P_s+P_d}\ , }[/math]
and where Ps and Pd are the probabilities that a randomly selected pair of observations will place in the same or opposite order respectively, when ranked by both variables.