Robustness of statistical inference in factor analysis and related models

A class of latent variable models which includes the unrestricted factor analysis model is considered. It is shown that minimum discrepancy test statistics and estimators derived under normality assumptions retain their asymptotic properties when the common factors are not normally distributed but the unique factors do have a multivariate normal distribution. The minimum discrepancy test statistics and estimators considered include the usual likelihood ratio test statistic and maximum likelihood estimators.