Revisiting User Guide Example - fs2000ns

Dynare help (legacy posts)
1

On running the dynare code that comes with this example, dynare gives the following error:

Configuring Dynare …
[mex] Generalized QZ.
[mex] Sylvester equation solution.
[mex] Kronecker products.
[mex] Sparse kronecker products.
[mex] Local state space iteration (second order).
[mex] Bytecode evaluation.
[mex] k-order perturbation solver.
[mex] k-order solution simulation.
[mex] Quasi Monte-Carlo sequence (Sobol).
[mex] Markov Switching SBVAR.

Starting Dynare (version 4.4.2).
Starting preprocessing of the model file …
WARNING: fs2000ns.mod:49.1-27: ‘‘unit_root_vars’’ is now obsolete; use the ‘‘diffuse_filter’’ option of ‘‘estimation’’ instead
Substitution of endo leads >= 2: added 1 auxiliary variables and equations.
Found 15 equation(s).
Evaluating expressions…done
Computing static model derivatives:

  • order 1
    Computing dynamic model derivatives:
  • order 1
  • order 2
    Processing outputs …done
    Preprocessing completed.
    Starting MATLAB/Octave computing.

Warning: Some of the parameters have no value (alp, bet, gam, mst, rho, psi, del) when using steady.
If these parameters are not initialized in a steadystate file, Dynare may not be able to solve the
model…

In test_for_deep_parameters_calibration at 46
In steady at 33
In fs2000ns at 180
In dynare at 180

Residuals of the static equations:

Equation number 1 : NaN
Equation number 2 : NaN
Equation number 3 : NaN
Equation number 4 : NaN
Equation number 5 : NaN
Equation number 6 : NaN
Equation number 7 : NaN
Equation number 8 : NaN
Equation number 9 : NaN
Equation number 10 : NaN
Equation number 11 : 0
Equation number 12 : NaN
Equation number 13 : NaN
Equation number 14 : NaN

Error using print_info (line 80)
The steady state contains NaN or Inf

Error in resid (line 112)
print_info(info,options_.noprint, options_)

Error in steady (line 90)
resid;

Error in fs2000ns (line 180)
steady;

Error in dynare (line 180)
evalin(‘base’,fname) ;

Can anyone please explain why?

I observe that in the user guide just after the initval block there is no steady option but the code file that comes with the example has that option. Upon removing the option the code works fine but it takes too long to estimate the model. Was that the main problem? i.e. the steady option?

Secondly, we have an external steady state program with the name fs2000ns_steadystate. What I don’t understand is the fact that nowhere in the dynare code we mentioned fs2000ns_steadystate, so does dynare automatically detects this file or are we suppose to run the external steady state program separately?

Any help regarding the above issues will be highly appreciated!!

2

There have been a lot of changes since the user guide.
As the model is non-stationary, a steady state file needs to be provided. This file computes the steady state values given the parameters.
Dynare checks whether there exists a steady state-file for the mod-file which by convention has the same name as the mod-file, but the ending _steady_state-file. Due to this convention, there is no need to specify the name of the steady state file.

The described problem comes from you calling the steady state computation without having parameters initialized. Within estimation, the parameters come from the estimated_parameters_blocks, but before that you need to set them explicitly. That is the reason for the

[quote]Warning: Some of the parameters have no value (alp, bet, gam, mst, rho, psi, del) when using steady.
If these parameters are not initialized in a steadystate file, Dynare may not be able to solve the
model… [/quote]