Summer schools

Two four-day courses run in parallel to each other:

Foundations of DSGE Macro-Modelling

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 Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian models.

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.

Advanced topics in Macro-Modelling

The Advanced Topics in DSGE Modelling course is aimed at more established researchers or advanced PhD students who are already fluent in Dynare and MATLAB. This course will be useful to anyone who is engaged in practical macroeconomic modelling work, especially if they are interested in working with models that are either computationally expensive to simulate, highly nonlinear, require additional recursive assumptions, or have infinite dimensional  state-spaces due to agent heterogeneity. 

The foundations and advanced courses run in parallel for four days. Then on day five, participants are able to choose one option of the standalone course. Any option can be chosen by all participants from both the foundations and advanced courses free of charge. Participants not attending the parallel courses on the first four days will be able to register for the options.

In the past the following stand-alone courses have been offered:

1. DSGE-VAR Models and Forecasting
2. Emerging Open Economies
3. Financial frictions
4. Occasionally Binding Constraints and Nonlinear Estimation
5. Optimal Policy Applications
6. From Matlab to Python in One Day
7. Credit Market Imperfections and Poverty Traps
8. Tractable Heterogeneous Agents Models (TANK/HANK)

The current course offering is listed below under 'upcoming courses.'

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

The first day will be centred on introducing the theoretical background of the gravity equation and its main applications for economic policy. On the second day, the course will move on to address the actual challenges in terms of computation and estimation of the gravity equation for international trade. 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 especial 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.