Encompassing: Formulation, Properties and Testing

This monograph is a contribution to the theory of encompassing. It formalizes the idea that a model should be able to explain the result to obtained by other, rival models. From the properties of the encompassing relation established here, it follows that encompassing can be used as a simplifying device in empirical model buiding. As concerns statistical inference, encompassing is shown to induce the robust approach towards parametric inference, and to unify the theories of nested and non-nested hypotheses testing.