Abstract
A typical question in multiple regression analysis is to determine if a set of predictors gives the same degree of predictor power in two different populations. Olkin and Finn (1995) proposed two asymptotic-based methods for testing the equality of two population squared multiple correlations, ρ2 1 and ρ2 2. Simulation results indicated that these methods failed to perform accurately under certain model conditions (Algina & Keselman, 1999). In the present study, a unified bootstrap procedure is proposed for estimating the standard error of R 2 1 − R 2 2 and constructing the confidence interval for ρ2 1 − ρ2 2. A simulation study was conducted to examine the empirical performance of the proposed procedure under different levels of ρ2, sample sizes, numbers of predictors, and types of data distribution. Results indicated that the asymptotic method, in general, can only work well with normal data. The bootstrap procedure, on the other hand, performs satisfactorily with both normal and nonnormal data. However, both methods fail when ρ2 1 and ρ2 2 are zero.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
