Tore Schweder is a Professor of Statistics in the Department of Economics and at the Centre for Ecology and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo. Nils Lid Hjort is Professor of Mathematical Statistics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oslo.

• 1. Confidence, likelihood, probability: an invitation; 2. Interference in parametric models; 3. Confidence distributions; 4. Further developments for confidence distribution; 5. Invariance, sufficiency and optimality for confidence distributions; 6. The fiducial argument; 7. Improved approximations for confidence distributions; 8. Exponential families and generalised linear models; 9. Confidence distributions in higher dimensions; 10. Likelihoods and confidence likelihoods; 11. Confidence in non- and semiparametric models; 12. Predictions and confidence; 13. Meta-analysis and combination of information; 14. Applications; 15. Finale: summary, and a look into the future.

'This book presents a detailed and wide-ranging account of an approach to inference that moves the discipline towards increased cohesion, avoiding the artificial distinction between testing and estimation. Innovative and thorough, it is sure to have an impact both in the foundations of inference and in a wide range of practical applications of inference.' Nancy Reid, University Professor of Statistical Sciences, University of Toronto