Representing Inductively Defined Sets by Wellorderings in Martin-Löf's Type Theory

We prove that every strictly positive endofunctor on the category of sets generated by Martin-Lof's extensional type theory has an initial algebra. This representation of inductively defined sets uses essentially the wellorderings introduced by Martin-Lof in "Constructive Mathematics and Computer Programming". 1 Background Martin-Lof [10] introduced a general set former for wellorderings in intuitionistic type theory. It has formation rule Aset (x : A) B(x)set W x:A B(x)set introduction rule a : A (x : B(a)) b(x) : W x:A B(x) sup(a; b) : W x:A B(x) : elimination rule c : W x:A B(x) (x : A; y : B(x) !W x:A B(x); z : Q t:B(x) C(y(t))) d(x; y; z) : C(sup(a; b)) T (c; d) : C(c) and equality rule a : A (x : B(a)) b(x) : W x:A B(x) (x : A; y : B(x) !W x:A B(x); z : Q t:B(x) C(y(t))) d(x; y; z) : C(sup(a; b)) T (sup(a; b); d) = d(a; b; t:T (b(t); d) : C(c) The elimination rule can be viewed either as a rule of transfinite induction or as a rule of definition by transfinite re..