Empirical likelihood based inference with applications to some econometric models

This paper uses the concept of dual likelihood to develop some higher order asymptotic theory for the empirical likelihood ratio test for parameters defined implicitly by a set of estimating equations. The resulting theory is likelihood based in the sense that it relies on methods developed for ordinary parametric likelihood models to obtain valid Edgeworth expansions for the maximum dual likelihood estimator and for the dual/empirical likelihood ratio statistic. In particular, the theory relies on certain Bartlett-type identities that can be used to produce a simple proof of the existence of a Bartlett correction for the dual/empirical likelihood ratio. The paper also shows that a bootstrap version of the dual/empirical likelihood ratio achieves the same higher order accuracy as the Bartlett-corrected dual/empirical likelihood ratio.