Empirical Likelihood for Random Sets

We extend the method of empirical likelihood to cover hypotheses involving the Aumann expectation of random sets. By exploiting the properties of random sets, we convert the testing problem into one involving a continuum of moment restrictions for which we propose two inferential procedures. The first, which we term marked empirical likelihood, corresponds to constructing a non-parametric likelihood for each moment restriction and assessing the resulting process. The second, termed sieve empirical likelihood, corresponds to constructing a likelihood for a vector of moments with growing dimension. We derive the asymptotic distributions under the null and sequence of local alternatives for both types of tests and prove their consistency. The applicability of these inferential procedures is demonstrated in the context of two examples on the mean of interval observations and best linear predictors for interval outcomes.