Advanced Managerial

Statistics
Nonparametric Analysis:
(Comparing More Than Two
Populations)
Kruskal-Wallis Test

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Tests the equality of more than 2 population

medians
Use when the normality assumption for one-way
ANOVA is violated
Assumptions:
The samples are random and independent
The data are either ordinal or quantitative but
not normal

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Obtain overall rankings for each value

In

event of tie, each of the tied values gets the

average rank

Sum the rankings for data from each of the c

groups
Compute the H test statistic

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

The Kruskal-Wallis H test statistic:

(with c 1 degrees of freedom)
c T2
12
j
H
3(n 1)

n(n 1) j 1 n j

where:
n = total number of values over the combined samples
c = Number of groups
Tj = Sum of ranks in the jth sample
nj = Size of the jth sample

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Complete the test by comparing the calculated H value to a

critical 2 value from the chi-square distribution with (c 1)
degrees of freedom (refer to Table 8 of Cambridge)

0
Do Not Reject Reject H0
H0

2U = 2, (c 1)

Decision rule:
Reject H0 if test statistic H
> 2U
Otherwise Do Not Reject H0

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Example 1

Do different branch offices have a different

median number of employees?
Office size
Office size
Office size
(Chicago, C) (Denver, D) (Houston, H)
23
55
30
41
60
40
54
72
18
78
45
34
66
70
44

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Example 1

Do different branch offices have a different

median number of employees?

Office size
Ranking
(Chicago, C)
23
41
54
78
66

2
6
9
15
12
= 44

Office size
(Denver, D)

Ranking

Class size
(Houston, H)

Ranking

55
60
72
45
70

10
11
14
8
13

30
40
18
34
44

3
5
1
4
7

= 56

= 20

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Example 1
H0 : Median C Median D Median H
H A : Not all population Medians are equal

The H statistic is
c T2
12
j
H
3(n 1)

n(n 1) j 1 n j
12
442 562 202

3(15 1) 6.72

5
5
15(15 1) 5

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Example 1

Compare H = 6.72 to the critical value from the chi-square

distribution for (3 1) = 2 degrees of freedom and = .05:
= 0.05

0
Do Not Reject Reject H0
H0

2U = 5.991

Since H = 6.72 > U2 5.991,

So, Reject H0
There is sufficient evidence of a
difference in the population
median number of employees in
the branch offices.

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Example 2
Saturday morning cartoons have been
subjected to much criticism by educators,
psychologists and politicians because of the
excessive amount of violence. In order to
determine if certain networks have more
violent cartoons than others, several
parents of children who regularly watch
cartoons were asked to judge on a five
point scale the level of violence (1 = no
violence and 5 = extreme violence) shown
in the cartoon. Six parents were asked to
judge TV3 cartoons, another six judged
NTV7 cartoons and another six rated Astro
cartoon network programs. Can we
conclude at the 5% level of significance that
the networks differ in the degree of
violence shown in their cartoons?

Network Rating
TV3 NTV7 Astro
4
2
5
5
3
5
2
3
4
3
2
5
5
4
5
4
2
4

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Example 2
Network Rating
TV3 NTV7 Astro
4
2
5
5
3
5
2
3
4
3
2
5
5
4
5
4
2
4

What type of data are these?

Are they dependent
independent samples?

or

Do the data qualify for a

parametric test?

Kruskal-Wallis Rank Test

Example 2
Network Rating
TV3 NTV7 Astro
4
2
5
5
3
5
2
3
4
3
2
5
5
4
5
4
2
4

Can we conclude at the 5% level of

significance that the networks
differ in the degree of violence
shown in their cartoons?

Summary

Determined when to use nonparametric tests

Assigned rank
Applied Kruskal-Wallis Test
Used both Critical Value approach to conclude
Interpreted the result from using the Kruskal-Wallis Test