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Release of Dynare 5.5
by Sébastien Villemot 24 Oct '23

24 Oct '23

Dear Dynare friends, We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 5.5. This maintenance release fixes various bugs. The Windows, macOS and source packages are already available for download at the Dynare website. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade. This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 8.3 (R2014a) to 23.2 (R2023b), and with GNU Octave version 8.3.0 (under Windows). Note for macOS users with an Apple Silicon processor: this is the first Dynare release that comes with native Apple Silicon (arm64) support under MATLAB. Please download the corresponding package, to be used with MATLAB R2023b for Apple Silicon. Here is a list of the problems identified in version 5.4 and that have been fixed in version 5.5: * In a stochastic context, results could be incorrect if an endogenous with a lead ⩾ 2 or an exogenous with a lead ⩾ 1 appeared in the argument(s) of a call to a (nonlinear) external function * With the use_dll option of the model block, the expression sign(x)would evaluate to ±1 instead of 0 if x=0 * If the guess value given to the steady command was such that the residuals were all below tolerance, except some that are NaN, then this guess value was incorrectly accepted as the solution to the steady state problem * The method_of_moments command with GMM was ignoring theanalytic_standard_errors option when using mode_compute=4 * Homotopy with the extended_path command at order=0 was broken * The parallel_use_psexec command-line option was ignored * With the bytecode option of the model block, using the operators abs(),cbrt() and sign() would lead to a crash * The fast command-line option was broken under MATLAB with Windows * Ramsey steady state computation could fail if an expectation or diffoperator was present in the model * A crash could occur if some external function call was present in an auxiliary variable * The endogenous_prior option of the estimation command could erroneously display a warning message about missing observations * The model_comparison command would crash if the .mod file name had less than four characters * The shock_decomposition command would overwrite previously stored smoother results * The x13 interface in dseries did not handle missing values, particularly at the beginning of a series * The x13 interface in dseries would occasionally crash under Windows with segmentation violations * OccBin: estimation would crash if a previous shocks(surprise) simulation was conducted * The internals command would not find the location of the _results.matfile * The prior optimize command would not work with mode_compute=5 As a reminder, the list of new features introduced in versions 5.x can be found in the release notes for 5.0. On behalf of the Dynare Team, -- Sébastien Villemot Economist at CEPREMAP Dynare developer https://sebastien.villemot.name

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Release of Dynare 5.4
by Sébastien Villemot 24 Mar '23

24 Mar '23

Dear Dynare friends, We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 5.4. This maintenance release fixes various bugs. The Windows, macOS and source packages are already available for download atthe Dynare website. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade. This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 8.3 (R2014a) to 9.14 (R2023a), and with GNU Octave version 8.1.0 (under Windows). Note for macOS users with an Apple Silicon processor, and who are also MATLAB users: the official MATLAB version for use on those processors is still the Intel version (running through Rosetta 2), so the official Dynare package for download on our website is built for Intel only. However, since Mathworks has released a beta version of MATLAB for Apple Silicon, we created a beta package of Dynare that you can try with it. See this forum thread for more details:https://forum.dynare.org/t/testers-wanted-release-of-dynare-5-x-bet… Here is a list of the problems identified in version 5.3 and that have been fixed in version 5.4: * Files installed through the Windows installer had too weak permissions and could be modified by unpriviledged local users, if the default installation location (c:\dynare\) had been chosen * Estimation: the load_results_after_load_mh option would not find the location of the results filethe computation of prior/posterior statistics would crash if the value of the filter step_ahead option was greater than 1 without requesting a forecast or the smootherNaN or complex parameters returned by steady state files were not correctly handledanalytical_derivation could be triggered with endogenous_prior but would not take the endogenous prior into account for the Jacobian and Hessian * OccBin: running the calib_smoother command with smoother_inversion_filter would crash unless likelihood_inversion_filter was also specifiedrunning the piecewise Kalman smoother would crash if an error was encountered during computation of the decision rules * PAC equation estimation through iterative OLS would crash if the auxiliary model contained a constant * The variable label was incorrect for leads and lags of exogenous variables in the display of decision rules and in the model_info command * Declaring a trend_var variable while not having a var(deflator=...) statement would cause the preprocessor to crash * Macro processor: error messages following a @#define, @#include or @#includepath directive could in some cases point to a line number off by 1 * Perfect foresight simulations: the debug option would not preserve sparsity, causing out of memory errors As a reminder, the list of new features introduced in versions 5.x can be found in the release notes for 5.0. On behalf of the Dynare Team, -- Sébastien Villemot Economist at CEPREMAP Dynare developer https://sebastien.villemot.name

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[Erratum] 2nd Dynare workshop for advanced users
by Stéphane Adjemian 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

Sorry to write again, there was an error in the previous message: the second Dynare workshop for advanced users will take place from Wednesday to Friday 6-8 September 2023 (not in November). Dear friends, We will organise a workshop for advanced Dynare users (second edition). The event will be hosted by the Joint Research Center (Ispra, Italy) from Wednesday to Friday September 6-8 2023. More information on our website: https://www.dynare.org/events/dynare-workshop-for-advanced-users-2023-open Deadline for submissions is 30 April 2023. Best regards, Stéphane

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17th Dynare conference in Malta
by Stéphane Adjemian 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

Dear friends, Next Dynare conference will be hosted by the Bank of Malta, Valetta, from 19th to 20th October 2023. Keynote speakers will be John Hassler (Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University) and Frank Smets (European Central Bank, Ghent University). More information on our website: https://www.dynare.org/events/dynare-conference-2023/ Deadline for submissions is 10 May 2023. Best, Stéphane.

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2nd Dynare workshop for advanced users
by Stéphane Adjemian 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

Dear friends, We will organise a workshop for advanced Dynare users (second edition). The event will be hosted by the Joint Research Center (Ispra, Italy) from Wednesday to Friday November 6-8 2023. More information on our website: https://www.dynare.org/events/dynare-workshop-for-advanced-users-2023-open Deadline for submissions is 30 April 2023. Best regards, Stéphane

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Dynare Summer School 2023
by Stéphane Adjemian 22 Jan '23

22 Jan '23

Dear Friends, This year the Dynare Summer School will be hosted, from May 22 to May 26, 2023, by École Normale Supérieure (Campus Jourdan). The courses will focus on simulation and estimation of DSGE models with Dynare, and Marco Del Negro (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) will be the invited speaker. More information is available on our website: https://www.dynare.org/events/dynare-summer-school-2023-applications-open Applications should be sent to school(a)dynare.org (with a CV and a recent research paper attached as PDFs) no later than March 3, 2023. Best regards, Stéphane.

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Release of Dynare 5.3
by Sébastien Villemot 21 Nov '22

21 Nov '22

Dear Dynare friends, We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 5.3. This maintenance release fixes various bugs. The Windows, macOS and source packages are already available for download atthe Dynare website. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade. This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 8.3 (R2014a) to 9.13 (R2022b), and with GNU Octave version 7.3.0 (under Windows). Note for macOS users with an Apple Silicon processor, and who are also MATLAB users: the official MATLAB version for use on those processors is still the Intel version (running through Rosetta 2), so the official Dynare package for download on our website is built for Intel only. However, since Mathworks has released a beta version of MATLAB for Apple Silicon, we created a beta package of Dynare that you can try with it. See this forum thread for more details:https://forum.dynare.org/t/testers-wanted-release-of-dynare-5-x-bet… Here is a list of the problems identified in version 5.2 and that have been fixed in version 5.3: * Problems with the steady_state operator: if a steady_state operator contained an algebraic expression appearing multiple times in the model and sufficiently complex to trigger the creation of a temporary term, then the result of the operator would be wrong (the operator was essentially ignored)if a steady_state operator contained a call to an external function, then the result of the operator would be wrong (the operator was essentially ignored). A proper fix to this problem would require substantial architectural changes, so for now it is forbidden to use an external function inside a steady_state operator * Pruning in particle filtering at order 2 was not using the exact same formula as the original Kim et al. (2008) paper. A second-order term entered the cross-product between states and shocks, where it should have been a first-order term. This however would not lead to explosive trajectories in practice * The simul_replic option of the stoch_simul command would not store the binary file in the Output folder * Problems with Ramsey policy (ramsey_model/ramsey_policy commands): steady state files would not work when auxiliary variables included Lagrange multipliersfor linear competitive equilibrium laws of motion, welfare evaluated at higher order was erroneously equated to steady state welfare * The discretionary_policy command would not always correctly infer the number of instruments and equations, leading to spurious error messages * Perfect foresight simulations of purely forward or backward models would crash if complex numbers were encountered * When using both block and bytecode options of the model block, if the model was such that a sufficiently complex algebraic expression appeared both in the residuals and in the derivatives, leading to the creation of a temporary term, then the results could be incorrect under some circumstances * When using the bytecode option of the model block, leads of more than +127 or lags of less than -128 were not correctly handled * Problems with the solver under occasionally binding constraints (occbin_solver command): when solving the baseline regime, it would not properly handle errors like Blanchard-Kahn violationsthe piecewise linear Kalman filter (PKF) would crash if the model solution could not be computed for a parameter drawthe oo_.FilteredVariablesKStepAhead and oo_.UpdatedVariables MATLAB/Octave variables would contain the steady state twicethe inversion filter would crash if the filter_step_ahead or state_uncertainty options were requestedthe PKF would crash if filter_step_ahead=1 was specifiedthe PKF would crash if the state_uncertainty option was specified together with the smoother_redux optionthe last regime before the system is back to normal times in the two-constraints case could be wrongly set, possibly leading to wrong simulations, lack of convergence or crashes * Problems with identification (identification command): with prior_mc>1 specified, it would incorrectly display the share of rank deficient Jacobiansit would crash during plotting or displaying identification strength when the necessary identification criteria based on moments could not be computed * The plot_shock_decomposition command would crash if invalid field names were encountered * The shock_decomposition command would not pass specified initial dates to generated plots * Various pathological cases encountered in steady state finding could lead to a crash * The solve_algo=0 option of the steady command would not honor tolx * In the dynare_sensitivity command, stability mapping would not correctly honor the prior bounds As a reminder, the list of new features introduced in versions 5.x can be found in the release notes for 5.0. On behalf of the Dynare Team, -- Sébastien Villemot Economist at CEPREMAP Dynare developer https://sebastien.villemot.name

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Release of Dynare 5.2
by Sébastien Villemot 28 Jul '22

28 Jul '22

Dear Dynare friends, We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 5.2. This maintenance release fixes various bugs. The Windows, macOS and source packages are already available for download atthe Dynare website. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade. This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 8.3 (R2014a) to 9.12 (R2022a), and with GNU Octave version 6.4.0 (under Windows). Note for macOS users with an Apple Silicon processor, and who are also MATLAB users: the official MATLAB version for use on those processors is still the Intel version (running through Rosetta 2), so the official Dynare package for download on our website is built for Intel only. However, since Mathworks has released a beta version of MATLAB for Apple Silicon, we created a beta package of Dynare that you can try with it. See this forum thread for more details:https://forum.dynare.org/t/testers-wanted-release-of-dynare-5-x-bet… Here is a list of the problems identified in version 5.1 and that have been fixed in version 5.2: * Problems with the steady_state operator: if a steady_state operator contained an algebraic expression appearing multiple times in the model and sufficiently complex to trigger the creation of a temporary term, then the result of the operator would be wrong (the operator was essentially ignored)if a steady_state operator contained a call to an external function, then the result of the operator would be wrong (the operator was essentially ignored). A proper fix to this problem would require substantial architectural changes, so for now it is forbidden to use an external function inside a steady_state operator * Pruning in particle filtering at order 2 was not using the exact same formula as the original Kim et al. (2008) paper. A second-order term entered the cross-product between states and shocks, where it should have been a first-order term. This however would not lead to explosive trajectories in practice * The simul_replic option of the stoch_simul command would not store the binary file in the Output folder * Problems with Ramsey policy (ramsey_model/ramsey_policy commands): steady state files would not work when auxiliary variables included Lagrange multipliersfor linear competitive equilibrium laws of motion, welfare evaluated at higher order was erroneously equated to steady state welfare * The discretionary_policy command would not always correctly infer the number of instruments and equations, leading to spurious error messages * Perfect foresight simulations of purely forward or backward models would crash if complex numbers were encountered * When using both block and bytecode options of the model block, if the model was such that a sufficiently complex algebraic expression appeared both in the residuals and in the derivatives, leading to the creation of a temporary term, then the results could be incorrect under some circumstances * When using the bytecode option of the model block, leads of more than +127 or lags of less than -128 were not correctly handled * Problems with the solver under occasionally binding constraints (occbin_solver command): when solving the baseline regime, it would not properly handle errors like Blanchard-Kahn violationsthe piecewise linear Kalman filter (PKF) would crash if the model solution could not be computed for a parameter drawthe oo_.FilteredVariablesKStepAhead and oo_.UpdatedVariables MATLAB/Octave variables would contain the steady state twicethe inversion filter would crash if the filter_step_ahead or state_uncertainty options were requestedthe PKF would crash if filter_step_ahead=1 was specifiedthe PKF would crash if the state_uncertainty option was specified together with the smoother_redux optionthe last regime before the system is back to normal times in the two-constraints case could be wrongly set, possibly leading to wrong simulations, lack of convergence or crashes * Problems with identification (identification command): with prior_mc>1 specified, it would incorrectly display the share of rank deficient Jacobiansit would crash during plotting or displaying identification strength when the necessary identification criteria based on moments could not be computed * The plot_shock_decomposition command would crash if invalid field names were encountered * The shock_decomposition command would not pass specified initial dates to generated plots * Various pathological cases encountered in steady state finding could lead to a crash * The solve_algo=0 option of the steady command would not honor tolx * In the dynare_sensitivity command, stability mapping would not correctly honor the prior bounds As a reminder, the list of new features introduced in versions 5.x can be found in the release notes for 5.0. On behalf of the Dynare Team, -- Sébastien Villemot Economist at CEPREMAP Dynare developer https://sebastien.villemot.name

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Release of Dynare 5.1
by Sébastien Villemot 07 Apr '22

07 Apr '22

Dear Dynare friends, We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 5.1. This maintenance release fixes various bugs. The Windows, macOS and source packages are already available for download atthe Dynare website. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade. This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 8.3 (R2014a) to 9.12 (R2022a), and with GNU Octave version 6.4.0 (under Windows). Here is a list of the problems identified in version 5.0 and that have been fixed in version 5.1: * Various problems with perfect foresight simulations in combination with block and/or bytecode options of the model block: Simulation with bytecode and stack_solve_algo=4 could give incorrect results if the model has a linear block of type “Solve two boundaries simple/complete”Simulation with bytecode and stack_solve_algo=1 could fail to convergeSimulation with block (but without bytecode) and stack_solve_algo=1 gave wrong results in the last simulation period if the model has a block of type “Solve two boundaries simple/complete”Simulation with bytecode and block would give incorrect results if the model has a linear block of type “Solve forward simple/complete”Simulation with block (but without bytecode) would crash or give incorrect results if the model has a block of type “Solve forward/backward simple/complete”Simulation with bytecode, block and stack_solve_algo={0,1,4} would crash or give incorrect results if the model has a block of type “Solve forward/backward complete”Simulation with block (but without bytecode) gave incorrect results if the model has a block of type “Solve backward simple/complete”Simulation with block (with or without bytecode) could give incorrect results if the model has a nonlinear block of type “Solve forward/backward simple/complete”Simulation with bytecode, block and stack_solve_algo=4 could give incorrect results if the model has a block of type “Solve backward/forward simple/complete” that follows a block of type “Solve two boundaries” (in the sense of the dependency graph)The convergence criterion in simulations with block (but without bytecode) was incorrect: the value of the tolf option from the steady command was used instead of the value of tolf option from the perfect_foresight_solver command * Various problems with steady state computation in combination with block and/or bytecode options of the model block: Steady state computation with bytecode and block could fail if some equations are marked [static]Steady state computation with bytecode, block and solve_algo ⩽ 4 or ⩾ 9 could failSteady state computation with bytecode, block and solve_algo=6 would crash or give incorrect results if the model has a block of type “Solve forward/backward complete” * The check command would crash or give incorrect results when using the block option of the model block and if the model has a block of type “Solve backward complete” * The static and incidence options of the model_info command did not work as documented in the reference manual * Various problems with the method_of_moments command: It would crash if no matched_moments block is presentIt would always load the full range of the first Excel sheet instead of the xls_range of the specified xls_sheetSMM would crash if a parameter draw triggers an error during additional_optimizer_steps = 13The debug option could not be passed to the command * In the estimation command, the scale_file field of the posterior_sampler_options option did not correctly load the scale * The moments_varendo option of the estimation command could crash for large models * The resid command would not show name tags when used in conjunction with the ramsey_model command * Simulations with the occbin_solver command would not work if there is only a surprise shock in the first period * The Liu & West auxiliary particle filter could enter infinite loops As a reminder, the list of new features introduced in versions 5.x can be found in the release notes for 5.0. On behalf of the Dynare Team, -- Sébastien Villemot Economist at CEPREMAP Dynare developer https://sebastien.villemot.name

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Dynare Summer School 2022
by Stéphane Adjemian 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

Dear Friends, This year the Dynare Summer School will be hosted, from May 30 to June 3, 2022, by École Normale Supérieure (Campus Jourdan). The courses will focus on simulation and estimation of DSGE models with Dynare. More information is available on our website: https://www.dynare.org/events/dynare-summer-school-2022-applications-open Applications should be sent to school(a)dynare.org (with a CV and a recent research paper attached as PDFs) no later than March 27, 2022. Best regards, Stéphane.

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