CIMS Online Summer Schools: Foundations and Advanced of DSGE Macro Modelling, and International Trade/Gravity Models

This is a Virtual Summer school (online) this year.

Applications are now open for CIMS summer school 2025.

APPLY HERE

This year's Summer school will feature:

• Foundations of DSGE Macro Modelling

1. The five-day course in Foundations of DSGE Modelling will run from 08-12 September 2025. The five days will consist of foundations course aimed at early researchers with some knowledge of Real Business Cycle (RBC) or Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) macroeconomic models, but little or no experience of Dynare. This course assumes a basic knowledge of Matlab and will begin with the basics of Dynare and proceed to the construction, in stages, of a closed economy New Keynesian (NK) DSGE model. It will then progress to the estimation by Bayesian methods, the study of optimal monetary policy and finish with an extension to the open economy NK DSGE model. 

The course is aimed at MSc, MRes and PhD students, early researchers, and research staff from central banks, ministries and the private sector, all with some prior experience of macroeconomic modelling and a basic knowledge of Matlab. No prior knowledge of Dynare is necessary. Please note that all participants need to have their own copy of Matlab (https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html) for the course on Foundations of DSGE Macro Modelling. There is a short-term license available for students which is worth checking: https://www.mathworks.com/campaigns/products/trials.html

• Advanced Macro-Modelling with Applications to Numerical Methods and Heterogeneous Agents

1. The five-day course in Advanced Modelling will run from 15-19 September 2025. The advanced course is aimed at people who are already fluent in Dynare and Matlab, but are finding that their ambition currently exceeds what they are able to do with these tools. We aim to distribute some of the numerical and computational tricks we have picked up over the course of our careers to enable people to tackle non-standard models. 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, nonlinear, or infinite dimensional thanks to heterogeneous agents, monetary policy, or optimal taxation and inequality.

The course is aimed at MSc, MRes and PhD students, early researchers, and research staff from central banks, ministries and the private sector, all with some prior experience of macroeconomic modelling and a basic knowledge of Matlab. No prior knowledge of Dynare is necessary. Please note that all participants need to have their own copy of Matlab (https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html) for the course on Advanced Macro Modelling. There is a short-term license available for students which is worth checking: https://www.mathworks.com/campaigns/products/trials.html

• International Trade and Gravity Models

1. The three-day course in Gravity Modelling will run from 03-05 September 2025. Its focus will be on introducing the theoretical background of the gravity equation and its main applications for economic policy, as well as addressing the actual challenges in terms of computation and estimation of the gravity equation in the context of international trade.
2. 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.
3. On day three the summer school 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. These include the impacts of income on international trade flows and main features of North-North trade versus North-South trade; the economics of Brexit; and economic warfare in a context of trade negotiations between symmetric and asymmetric trade partners.

The summer school on International Trade and Gravity Models is suitable for PhD students and advanced masters students with a focus on international trade. It is also suitable to practitioners and policy makers working on international trade, with a special interest in applications of gravity models and in deepening their understanding of the determinants of trade flows. Please note that all participants need to have their own copy of Stata (https://www.stata-uk.com/software/stata.html) for the course on International Trade and Gravity Models. There is a short-term license available for students which is worth checking: https://www.stata.com/customer-service/short-term-license/

Online delivery method:

• The course will be conducted using the Microsoft Team platform.
• The university and the lecturers are used to do online teaching and have state-of-the-art systems to do so and are able to deliver highly interactive experiences. Though we will do our best to record all sessions, we are expecting participants to attend them live to enable interactions between participants and lectures. Any and all questions are welcome.
• There will be opportunities to discuss the projects and research ideas of the participants. This will occur both informally as well as formally during the lecture or beak time. After the summer school, lecturers will be available to answer questions and discuss the projects of the participants.
• Participants will be sent computer codes, lecture notes, and slides ahead of time. Participants will also receive direct assistance before the summer school starts in order to set up all the systems ahead of the online events.
• The summer school covers the theoretical aspects of the techniques. In addition, the summer school is very hands-on and participants will have carefully implemented exercises where they need to modify parts of the codes. This will be done in the lectures, both in groups and with the help of the instructors. The participants will receive solutions to all exercises and will be provided with computer codes that may then use in their own research..