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Discussion Paper

Empirical Likelihood Methods in Econometrics: Theory and Practice

Recent developments in empirical likelihood (EL) methods are reviewed. First, to put the method in perspective, two interpretations of empirical likelihood are presented, one as a nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation method (NPMLE) and the other as a generalized minimum contrast estimator (GMC). The latter interpretation provides a clear connection between EL, GMM, GEL and other related estimators. Second, EL is shown to have various advantages over other methods.