Computational Tools for Estimation, Optimal Policy and Dynamic Games

Summary

This theme was supported by a three-year project from September 2008, financed by the Framework Programme 7 of the European Commission. The final aim was to add the two facilities to the macroeconomic modelling software package DYNARE, pioneered by Michel Juillard.  First, to extend the scope of DYNARE to handle imperfect information in the estimation of DSGE models. Second, to provide a facility in both perfect and imperfect settings to compute optimal monetary rules where policy is constrained in a number of ways including the need for simplicity, time consistency and robustness.

Funding

FP7

Details

The first of these facilities is now available in DYNARE and the second will be available before the end of 2012. Current work is extending the latter feature to multiple instruments and future plans include adding facilities on learning and dynamic games between several policymakers.

Another macroeconomic modelling software package, WinSolve, widely used in central banks throughout the world has been developed by Richard Pierse of CIMS. WinSolve is a particularly user-friendly program for solving, simulating, computing optimal policy and computing non-cooperative equilibria in dynamic games. It will handle a wide class of non-linear models including both DSGE and more traditional equation-by-equation estimated econometric models.

Publications

Levine, Paul & Pearlman, Joseph, 2011. "Computation of LQ Approximations to Optimal Policy Problems in Different Information Settings under Zero Lower Bound Constraints," Dynare Working Papers 10, CEPREMAP.

Levine, Paul & Pearlman, Joseph & Pierse, Richard, 2008. "Linear-quadratic approximation, external habit and targeting rules," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 3315-3349, October.