diff --git a/doc/manual.xml b/doc/manual.xml
index cdeb69ee2f44be2b022c22da269a9588b6aa1558..6391e574c5340ea7adbac0815dc7ca9c2a8c74cd 100644
--- a/doc/manual.xml
+++ b/doc/manual.xml
@@ -3361,6 +3361,10 @@ end;
       <term><option>selected_variables_only</option></term>
       <listitem><para>Only run the smoother on the variables listed just after the <command>estimation</command> command. Default: run the smoother on all the declared endogenous variables.</para></listitem>
     </varlistentry>
+    <varlistentry>
+      <term><option>cova_compute</option> = <replaceable>INTEGER</replaceable></term>
+      <listitem><para>When 0, the covariance matrix of estimated parameters is not computed after the computation of posterior mode (or maximum likelihood). This increases speed of computation in large models during development, when this information is not always necessary. Of course, it will break all successive computations that would require this covariance matrix. Default is 1.</para></listitem>
+    </varlistentry>
     <varlistentry>
       <term><option>solve_algo</option> = <replaceable>INTEGER</replaceable></term>
       <listitem><para>See <link linkend="solve_algo">there</link></para></listitem>
diff --git a/preprocessor/DynareBison.yy b/preprocessor/DynareBison.yy
index 58a489aad7be530909fea73b2671b4308f4dddb9..855020c1137c83b89258e9cb6384c0306dbd5d90 100644
--- a/preprocessor/DynareBison.yy
+++ b/preprocessor/DynareBison.yy
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ class ParsingDriver;
 %token MARKOV_SWITCHING CHAIN STATE DURATION NUMBER_OF_STATES
 %token SVAR COEFFICIENTS VARIANCES CONSTANTS EQUATIONS
 %token EXTERNAL_FUNCTION EXT_FUNC_NAME EXT_FUNC_NARGS FIRST_DERIV_PROVIDED SECOND_DERIV_PROVIDED
-%token SELECTED_VARIABLES_ONLY
+%token SELECTED_VARIABLES_ONLY COVA_COMPUTE
 
 %type <node_val> expression expression_or_empty
 %type <node_val> equation hand_side
@@ -1172,6 +1172,7 @@ estimation_options : o_datafile
                    | o_filter_decomposition
                    | o_selected_variables_only
                    | o_conditional_variance_decomposition
+                   | o_cova_compute
                    ;
 
 list_optim_option : QUOTED_STRING COMMA QUOTED_STRING
@@ -1930,6 +1931,9 @@ o_filter_decomposition : FILTER_DECOMPOSITION
 o_selected_variables_only : SELECTED_VARIABLES_ONLY
                            { driver.option_num("selected_variables_only","1");}
                           ;
+o_cova_compute : COVA_COMPUTE EQUAL INT_NUMBER
+                 { driver.option_num("cova_compute",$3);}
+               ;
 
 range : symbol ':' symbol
         {
diff --git a/preprocessor/DynareFlex.ll b/preprocessor/DynareFlex.ll
index 84089100d985667d2928e1e1dc1d3298d0feb388..9915b5ce5506c575c608e0d24a8f65f104bee4e9 100644
--- a/preprocessor/DynareFlex.ll
+++ b/preprocessor/DynareFlex.ll
@@ -362,6 +362,7 @@ string eofbuff;
 <DYNARE_STATEMENT>pruning {return token::PRUNING; }
 <DYNARE_STATEMENT>deflator {return token::DEFLATOR;}
 <DYNARE_STATEMENT>growth_factor {return token::GROWTH_FACTOR;}
+<DYNARE_STATEMENT>cova_compute {return token::COVA_COMPUTE;}
 
 <DYNARE_STATEMENT>[\$][^$]*[\$] {
   strtok(yytext+1, "$");