Skewness and kurtosis as locally best invariant tests of normality

Abstract

Consider testing normality against a one-parameter family of univariate distributions containing the normal distribution as the boundary, e.g., the family of $t$-distributions or an infinitely divisible family with finite variance. We prove that under mild regularity conditions, the sample skewness is the locally best invariant (LBI) test of normality against a wide class of asymmetric families and the kurtosis is the LBI test against symmetric families. We also discuss non-regular cases such as testing normality against the stable family and some related results in the multivariate cases.