Summer school

The main goal of the Foundations of DSGE Modelling course is to provide instructions on the construction and estimation of Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models and for their use for policy analysis. It begins with the basics of Dynare and proceeds to the construction of a closed economy NK DSGE model. It will then progress to the estimation of the model by Bayesian methods and finish by introducing optimal monetary policy and open NK DSGE model. 

This course is Dynare-based and is aimed at:

• PhD, MSc or MRes students aiming to proceed to a PhD and early researchers who want to learn about DSGE modelling.
• Researchers and practitioners working at central banks, as well as at other private and public institutions who intend to construct or use DSGE models.

We require participants to have some prior experience with macroeconomic models and dynamic optimization and a basic knowledge of MATLAB, but no prior knowledge of Dynare is necessary.

The advanced course is aimed at researchers who are already fluent in Dynare and DSGE modelling or who wish to learn directly more advanced techniques. This course will be useful both for advanced PhD students, academic researchers, and central bank researchers engaged in macroeconomic modelling work. The advanced course covers models that are either computationally expensive to simulate, nonlinear, require additional recursive assumptions, or have infinite dimensional state-spaces thanks to heterogeneous agents and optimal taxation.

This consists of a two-day course in gravity modelling followed by a one-day course in topics in international trade.

The first two days of summer school will introduce the theoretical background of the gravity equation, its main applications for economic policy, and the challenges faced in the estimation of the gravity equation using international trade data. Students will be introduced to the estimation of gravity models using different econometric approaches, including pseudo-maximum likelihood estimators. The third day will consist of three separate two-hour sessions on topics that will expand on issues related to international trade flows beyond the standard gravity equation approach. 

This summer school is suitable for PhD students and advanced masters students with a focus on international trade. It is also suitable to practitioners and policymakers working on international trade, with special interest in applications of gravity models and in deepening their understanding of the determinants of trade flows. The first two days of the course assumes basic undergraduate-level knowledge of econometric methods and familiarity with basic Stata commands.

We have had participants at our Summer Schools (PDF) representing over 350 institutions from all over the world, including leading central banks and leading universities.

The courses have been taught by the following instructors over the years:

More details on the content of our Summer Schools in each year can be found following the links in the table below.