On the Inadmissibility of Step-Down Procedures for the Hotelling $T^2$ Problem

Step-down testing procedures for the Hotelling T^2 problem are considered. It is shown that the classical step-down procedure proposed by S. N. Roy, R. E. Bargmann and J. Roy is inadmissible among invariant procedures (for a suitable invariance group) in many situations, including all those for which more than two steps are contemplated. It is also noted that in most cases, the power of the step-down procedure decreases in at least one of the noncentrality parameters over part of the parameter space. Finally, several alternative admissible step-down procedures are proposed.