Quasi‐maximum likelihood estimation of a censored equation system with a copula approach: meat consumption by U.S. individuals

A copula approach to censored system estimation is proposed. The quasi‐maximum likelihood estimator departs from the multivariate normal error distribution predominantly used in existing estimators and resolves the computational difficulty with multiple probability integrals in high‐dimensional censored systems. An application to individual meat consumption demonstrates that the procedure produces very different empirical estimates from existing Gaussian full‐information and quasi‐maximum likelihood estimates.