This page documents known bugs in Dynare. A bug is associated with the latest version in which it appears (i.e. it has been or will be fixed in the next version).

Version 4.4.2

• When loading a dataset in XLS, XLSX or CSV format, the first observation was discarded

• When using the k_order_perturbation option (implicit at 3rd order) without the use_dll option, crashes or unexpected behavior could happen if some 2nd or 3rd derivative evaluates to zero (while not being symbolically zero)

• Ramsey policy: if a Lagrange multiplier appears in the model with a lead or a lag of more than one period, the steady state may be wrong (bug not yet fixed; see #633).

• Ramsey policy: one can experience crashes or wrong results if an external function is used.
• Ramsey policy: If the steady state file was modifying parameters, the changes were not taken fully taken into account.

• Wrong results if an external function is derived at 2nd order in conjunction with the bytecode option.

• The confidence level for computations in estimation, conf_sig cannot be changed and is fixed at 0.9 (bug not yet fixed in 4.4.2, contrary to the release announcement); the new option mh_conf_sig is now used to set this interval

• conditional_forecast with non-diagonal covariance matrix uses an incorrect decomposition of the covariance matrix (bug not yet fixed; see #628)

• Setting geweke_interval was not possible; Dynare always defaulted to the standard value

• Reading only one variable from an Excel-file for estimation leads to a crash during the initialization of estimation

• The conditional_forecast command produces wrong results in calibrated models when used at initial values outside of the steady state (given with initval) (bug not yet fixed; see #655).

• The mode_file-option lacks backward compatibility with older Dynare versions

• Using identification with var_exo_det leads to crashes (bug not yet fixed; see #664)

• Inconsistencies between static and dynamic models lead to crashes instead of error messages

• Running an MCMC a second time in the same folder with a different number of iterations may result in crashes due to the loading of stale files, (bug not yet fixed; see #566)

• Calling estimation after identification can lead to crashes (bug not yet fixed; see #675)

• Calling sensitivity with ML estimation can result in crashes (bug not yet fixed; see #676)

• Identification does not correctly pass the lik_init option, requiring the manual setting of options_.diffuse_filter=1 in case of unit roots (bug not yet fixed; see #677)

• The use of external functions crashes the preprocessor when the derivatives of the external function are explicitly called

• The detrending and prefiltering options do not work correctly in some cases (bug not yet fixed; see #679)

• Using the block option when a variable does not appear in the current period crashes Dynare instead of providing an error message

• If conditional_variance_decomposition is requested, although all variables contain unit roots, Dynare crashes instead of providing an error message (bug not yet fixed; see #691)

• For Ramsey, the equation numbers associated with the Lagrange multipliers stored in M_.aux_vars are erroneously one too low

Version 4.4.1

• Geweke convergence diagnostics was computed on the wrong sample if mh_drop was not equal to the default of 0.5.

• The loglinear option of stoch_simul displays the steady state of the original values, not the logged ones and produces incorrect simulations and simulated moments. Theoretical moments are unaffected.

• Setting options for mode_compute was only possible with at least Matlab 8.1 or Octave 3.8.

• For unit root models, theoretical HP filtered moments were sometimes erroneously displayed as NaN

• Specifying an endogenous variable twice after the estimation-command leads to a crash in the computation of moments

• Deterministic simulations crash on models with more than one lead or one lag on exogenous variables
• Homotopy in stochastic extended path with order greater than 0 was not working correctly (during the homotopy steps the perfect foresight model solver was called instead of the stochastic perfect foresight model solver).

• <M_.fname>_optimal_mh_scale_parameter.mat was not deleted if mode_compute>0.

• MCMC convergence diagnostics were not computed if mh_replic is less than 2000, but the test should rely on the total number of iterations (if option load_mh_file is used).

Version 4.4.0

• The syntax introduced in 4.4.0 for conditional forecast in a deterministic setup turned out to be problematic; a better syntax will be implemented in 4.4.1
• In MS-SBVAR, there was a bug preventing the computation of impulse responses on a constant regime

• The annualAverages option to addTable was removed. For similar functionality, use the tableDataRhs option to addSeries. Also, the vlineAfter option to addTable now also accepts a cell array

Version 4.3.3

• In an endval block, auxiliary variables are not given the right value (this does not result in wrong results, but may prevent convergence of the steady state computation)

• Auxiliary variables are not correctly handled in an endval block (they are not initialized)

• Deterministic simulations with stack_solve_algo=0 (the default value) crash if some exogenous has a lag strictly greater than 1

• dynare++ binary broken on OS X if you do not have gfortran 4.8.0 and libmatio 1.5.1 installed through Homebrew.

• When using the mode_file-option, the initial_estimation_checks were not performed for the loaded mode, but for the original starting values. Thus, potential prior violations by the mode only appeared during estimation, leading to potentially cryptic crashes and error messages.

• mh_autocorrelation_function and trace_plot only worked for deep parameters and structural shocks, but not for correlations (undocumented options)

• If a shock/measurement error variance was set to 0 in calibration, the correlation matrix featured a 0 instead of a 1 on the diagonal, leading to wrong estimation results.

• In the presence of calibrated covariances, estimation did not enforce positive definiteness of the covariance matrix

• ML estimation did not honor the zero lower bound on standard deviations, sometimes giving negative standard deviations

• Estimation using the diffuse_filter option together with the univariate Kalman filter and a diagonal measurement error matrix is broken. A fix can be found here

• Use of a purely backward model with k_order_solver leads to crashes of Matlab
• Non-linear estimation does not skip the specified presample when computing the likelihood

• IRFs and theoretical moments at order > 1 are broken for purely forward-looking models. Fixes can be found here

• Simulated moments with constant variables leads to crashes when displaying autocorrelations. A fix can be found here

• OSR sometimes crashes with cryptic error messages due to unaccounted error codes returned from resol

• Check for stochastic singularity in initial_estimation_checks is broken

• Recursive estimation starting with pathological case of nobs=1 crashes
• Conditional variance decomposition within or after estimation crashes when at least one shock has been calibrated to zero variance

• estimated_params_init and estimated_params_bounds blocks are broken for correlations

• filter_step_ahead-option produces no output in Bayesian estimation

• sim1 within simul sometimes erroneously indicates convergence although the residuals are actually NaN or Inf.

• User-supplied functions specified with the mode_compute-option lead to crashes

• Deterministic simulations without specified exogenous variables lead to crashes

• MS-SBVAR code did not update files between runs on windows. This means that if a mod file was updated between runs in the same folder and a file_tag was not changed, then the results did not change.

Version 4.3.2

• Option use_dll is broken under Windows

• Degenerate case of purely static models (no leads/no lags) were not correctly handled
• Deterministic simulations over a single period were not correctly done

• The sensitivity call dynare_sensitivity(identification=1,morris=2); is buggy when there are no shocks estimated. A fix can be found here

• The relative IRF-option of posterior IRFs is broken

• shock_decomposition after using selected_variables_only-option fails

• Sometimes, only the last open graph is saved, leading to missing and duplicate eps-graphs

• rplot only works with rplottype=0 (undocumented option)

• Estimation with measurement errors is wrong if a correlation between two measurement errors is calibrated
• Forecasting after ML estimation when not forecasting at least one observed variables (var_obs) leads to crashes
• Some functionalities crash with MATLAB R2013a (bytecode, MS-SBVAR)

• Sometimes only the first order autocorrelation of moments_varendo is saved instead of all up to options_.ar

Version 4.3.1

• Occasional bug in computation of posterior distribution of unconditional variance decomposition. The bug only appears for very large models and can be fixed be deleting the line 128 (DecompFileNumber = DecompFileNumber - 1;) in dsge_simulated_theoretical_variance_decomposition.m

• Sometimes estimation and mode_compute=6 crash with the error Operands to the || and && operators must be convertible to logical scalar values. A fix can be found here

• Block and bytecode with a stochastic model at order >= 2 is unsupported (a more explicit error message will be given in future releases)

• Derivative of erf() function is incorrect

• The check function does not set oo_.dr.eigval unless stoch_simul is used (contrary to what is indicated in the reference manual)

• Bug in computation of conditional forecast when the constraint is only on one period

• Estimation with mode_compute=3 is broken under Octave

Version 4.3.0

• Shock decomposition is broken
• Bug in welfare computation when using ramsey_policy and histval
• Bug in estimation of models with missing observations
• Bug in posterior IRF

• The option simul_replic is broken. It must be set by specifying options_.simul_replic=[Integer] before the stoch_simul command

• @#ifdef broken

• Identification with max_dim_cova_group>1 is broken for specially degenerate models (when parameter theta has pairwise collinearity==1 with multiple other params, i.e. when all couples (theta,b), (theta,c), ... (theta,d) have perfect collinearity in the Jacobian of the model)

• parallel_test option is broken

• The Windows package is broken with MATLAB 7.1 and 7.2
• Estimation with correlated shocks is broken

• When using mode_compute=0 with a mode-file from mode_compute=6, mh_jscale is not loaded. A fix can be found here

• Using exogenous deterministic variables at 2nd order triggers a crash

• The option no_create_init for the ms_estimation command is broken.

• Loading of datafiles with explicit filename extension was not working

Version 4.2.5

• Backward models with option loglinear are incorrectly handled

• Solving for hyperparameters of Inverse Gamma Priors sometimes crashes. A fix can be found here

• The deterministic solver for purely forward models is broken. A fix can be found here

• When running estimation or identification on models with non-diagonal structural error covariance matrices while not simultaneously estimating the correlation between shocks (i.e. calibrating the correlation) Dynare handles the off-diagonal elements incorrectly or crashes.

• When using the option prefiltering, smoother plots omitt the smoothed observables. A fix can be found here

• In the rare case of entering and expression x as x^(alppha-1) with x being 0 in steady state and alppha being a parameter equal to 2, the Jacobian evaluates to 0 instead of 1. A fix can be found here

• Setting the prior for shock correlations fails if a lower bound is not explicitly specified.
• In rare cases where the last structural shock has very low standard deviation, posterior IRFs may crash. A fix is to add "stock_irf_dsge=zeros(options_.irf,nvar,M_.exo_nbr,MAX_nirfs_dsge);" in line 141 of PosteriorIRF_core1.m

Version 4.2.4

• For Windows users only: the Dynare++ binary is broken in the Windows package (missing library); use the 4.2.2 package if you need Dynare++ (but otherwise use 4.2.4 for Dynare itself)
• Sometimes Dynare fails to detect MATLAB optimization toolbox

Version 4.2.3

• 2nd order approximation broken for most models (this problem only affects 4.2.3, not previous versions)

• model_diagnostics command broken

• Inverse gamma priors give incorrect results in some cases with very small variances

Version 4.2.2

• steady_state_model is broken for lags higher than 2

• simult_.m does not work with order=3 if k_order_solver has not been explicitly specified

• stoch_simul with order=3 and without periods reports dummy theoretical moments

• solve_algo=0 crashes under Octave in check and stoch_simul (but not steady)

• Identification is buggy
• the test for singularity in the model reporting eigenvalues close to 0/0 may report false positive

• conditional_variance_decomposition option doesn't work if one period is 0. Now, Dynare reports an error if the periods are not strictly positive.

• Second order approximation buggy if one variable is not present at the current period

Version 4.2.1

• The conditional_forecast command is buggy: it always uses the posterior mode, whatever the value of the parameter_set option

• Some native MATLAB statements are not correctly passed on to MATLAB (e.g. x = { 'foo' 'bar' } )

• With the block option of model, the preprocessor fails if there is an expression of the form "a^b" (with no endogenous in "a" but an endogenous in "b")

• Potential crashes with external_function

• MEX files for MATLAB fail to compile with GCC 4.6

• STEADY_STATE does not work correctly when it contains certain types of expressions (those that contain addition/subtraction) as it fails to place parenthesis around it

• The secondary rank test following the order test of the Blanchard and Kahn condition is faulty and almost never triggered.
• The variance prior for BVAR "à la Sims" with only one lag is inconsistent; the solution implemented consists of adding one extra observation in the presample used to compute the prior; as a consequence, the numerical results for all estimations will be slightly different in future releases (thanks to Marek Jarociński for spotting this)
• The lambda parameter for HP filter was restricted to integer values for no good reason

• The load_mh_file option of estimation crashes under Octave for Windows (MinGW version)

• Computation of steady state fails when model contains auxiliary variables because of leads or lags larger than 2 or because of the expectation operator.
• Identification does not work with MATLAB older than R2009b

Version 4.2.0

• STEADY_STATE operator is buggy

• This version does not work with MATLAB 7.3 (R2006b) and older

• ramsey_policy does not compute the value of the planner objective, contrarily to what is announced in the NewFeatures list

• partial_information option of stoch_simul is broken

• Option conditional_variance_decomposition of stoch_simul and estimation is broken

• Automatic detrending does not work in conjunction with EXPECTATION operator

• Octave 3.4 is not fully supported, though most files should work

• Using percentage sign inside strings in MATLAB statements (like disp('% This is not a comment %')) does not work

• Beta prior with a very small standard deviation doesn't work unless you have Matlab Statistical toolbox.
• External functions do not work when assigned to model local variables

• identification is buggy

• Option cova_compute of estimation command is buggy

• 3rd order approximation without use_dll option can under some circumstances lead to a crash or a dummy result

Version 4.1.3

• Under Octave, the deterministic solver fails on models with more than one lead or one lag

• Exogenous variables in histval are incorrectly handled in a stochastic setup

• varexo_det does not work in conjunction with use_dll

• EXPECTATION operator works incorrectly when more than one such operator is invoked on the same expression with differing information sets (e.g., something like EXPECTATION(1)(x) and EXPECTATION(-2)(x) appear in the same model block).
• Estimation fails under Octave if there is only one observed variable
• This version of Dynare does not compile against Boost libraries 1.44 or newer

Version 4.1.2

• third order approximation can be wrong or make Dynare fail on some models

• check command fails in deterministic setup (corrected in unstable 07/23/2010)

• the covariance elements of optim_weights (used with osr) are not working properly

• in a stochastic setup, model local variables are systematically replaced by their expression in the static/dynamic M/C files, resulting in huge output if there is a lot of such variables (bugfix changeset)

• EXPECTATION operator with a lag makes stoch_simul crash

• the histval block is buggy in the presence of auxiliary variables (i.e. when there are lags of two or more)

• the preprocessor crashes when the mean or stderr of an estimated parameter with beta PDF is specified as an expression instead of a plain value
• deterministic simulation with block decomposition crash when there is a purely backward or purely forward block of more than one equation

• STEADY_STATE operator does not work with use_dll option or with block without bytecode

• the preprocessor crashes when some dynamic variables appear only in unused model local variables

• stoch_simul: in the presence of non-stationary variables, and when selecting only a subset of variables for the output, the "NaN"s in the "mean" column may be wrongly placed

Version 4.1.1

• Models with leads on exogenous can be mishandled (creation of AuxiliaryVariables is buggy in that case)

• Option mode_compute=6 of estimation command fails under Octave

• normcdf() primitive cannot be used with bytecode option

• In the macro-processor, integer ranges a:b where a>b are not empty

Version 4.1.0

• Optimal simple rule (OSR) is broken in models with no unit root
• Root mean squared error is wrong for BVAR forecast
• Dynare++ binary shipped in Windows package crashes on some MOD files (it is a problem with the C++ compiler used to create it). Until a new Dynare is released, Windows users should use the Dynare++ binary distributed in the snapshot
• Bug in mode_check when the last screen of plots isn't complete
• dynasave command is broken
• Under Octave 3.0, option stack_solve_algo=3 is broken
• Under Octave/Windows with USE_DLL, Dynare requires option 'cygwin' or 'msvc', although it makes no use of it
• Conditional forecasts are wrong in models with non zero steady state or trends

Version 4.0.4

• 2nd order approximation of decision rules for stochastic models with leads greater than 2 are wrong

• in deterministic models, putting a shocks block before an endval block leads to wrong results; the right order is to put endval before shocks

• this version doesn't support MATLAB R2009a and R2009b on 64-bit platforms

• in estimation, option mode_file shouldn't be used if the posterior mode has been computed for a model with a different specification, even if the list of estimated parameters is the same. This can result in wrong results without error message

• with Octave, in stochastic simulations, Dynare will return wrong eigenvalues if the MEX file "mjdgges" is not present
• the resid() function messes up things when doing deterministic simulations, and should be avoided in that case

Version 4.0.2

• Option dr_algo has been suppressed without warning in this version

Version 4.0.1

• shocks_file option is missing

• there is a bug in DsgeSmoother.m for models with measurement errors (thanks for hlousek for reporting it)

• Octave crashes in mode_check.m, MakeAllFigures.m and PosteriorIRF.m, because of missing saveas() function (thanks to Gianni Lombardo for reporting)

• estimation crashes when mode_file is specified, at least under Octave (thanks to Gianni Lombardo for reporting)

Version 4.0.0

• typo at the top of DiffuseKalmanSmootherH1.m (thanks to Tsu-ting Tim Lin for reporting)

• call to cumulative normal distribution is broken (thanks to Karl Walentin for reporting)
• script for building MEX files under Matlab R2008a is broken (thanks to Slim Bridji for reporting)
• homotopy mode 3 is broken
• BVAR à la Sims: Dynare doesn't accept integer values for tau and lambda parameters (thanks to Aqua for reporting)