Version 6 will bring many improvements but also a few potentially breaking changes. We most strongly encourage you to modify your own code to comply with the new version in advance of its release. Relying on an older version of Dynare to run your own code may seem like a gain of time in the short term but will lead to more problems later. Note also that possible bugs found later in version 5 won't be fixed in that version. We expect users to run version 6 after its release.

Changes related to the storage of results

Information stored in oo_.endo_simul, oo_.exo_simul, oo_.irfs and M_.params will not be duplicated in the base workspace anymore.

1. IRFs stored by stoch_simul in oo_.irfs are not stored as vectors of the same in the base workspace. Users can use the new send_irfs_to_workspace function to send the IRFs to the base workspace after executing the command.
2. Endogenous and exogenous variable values stored in oo_.endo_simul and oo_.exo_simul are not stored as vectors of the same name as the variables in the base workspace after running stoch_simul with periods>0 or perfect_foresight_solver. Users can use the new send_endogenous_variables_to_workspace and send_exogenous_variables_to_workspace functions to send the variable values to the base workspace after the respective commands.

Changes related to global variables

Global variables have been removed from the downstream pipeline of Dynare commands like perfect_foresight, identification, and sensitivity. It is therefore necessary to explicitly pass the former global variables as function in- and outputs.

Changes related to estimation

The default value of mode_compute is now 5. If you want to restore the old behavior, you have to explicitly set mode_compute=4.

Changes related to sensitivity

The dynare_sensitivity command has been renamed sensitivity. The old name is still accepted but will trigger a warning.

Changes related to estimated_params

Multiple estimated_params blocks now concatenate their contents, instead of overwriting previous ones. To restore the old (undocumented) behavior, you need to use the overwrite option:

estimated_params(overwrite);
end; 

Changes related to the macro-processor

A macro-processor variable defined without a value will now be equal to true (it would previously be equal to 1).

This affects lines such as:

@#define var

in a .mod file.

This also affects variable defined on the dynare command line, such as:

dynare myfile.mod -Dvar

This change should have no impact in most cases, since variable thus defined are typically tested with @#ifdef/@#ifndef (in which case their value does not matter).

Changes related to resid

The resid-command now only accepts the new non_zero-option. The old syntax

resid(1);

will trigger an error

syntax error, unexpected INT_NUMBER, expecting NON_ZERO

and needs to be replaced by

resid;

Changes related to the mh_jscale-option of estimation

The default value of mh_jscale is now 2.38^2/npar, where npar denotes the number of estimated parameters, instead of a fixed 0.2. The new value corresponds to the optimal value for a Gaussian symmetric random walk Metropolis-Hastings (Gelman et al. 1995). Particularly for big models, the new default value should perform better.

At the same time, the mh_init_scale-option has become deprecated. Use the new mh_init_scale_factor-option to govern the overdispersion of the starting values for multiple MCMC chains. This option specifies the multiple of mh_jscale to be used.

Changes related to the model_info-command

The static-option has been superseded by the block_static-option.

Removed commands

• The periods command has been removed. Use the periods option instead.
• The Sigma_e command has been removed. Use the shocks block instead.