Issues with Matlab2014a and dynare compatibility

[parantap]

I am using dynare 4.2.2 and I have now installed matlab2014a. I also have an old version of matlab 2009a in my machine. At work I have matlab2013a. I ran two dynare programmes. Both run fine with earlier versions of matlab but do not run properly in the latest 2014a version. For the first dynare programme, it does not read the excel datafile and compains about unknown strings. For the second mod programme, its Bayesian estimation programme crashes after reporting that Hessian matrix may not be positive semidefnite. I have no such problems in running these two mod programmes in earlier versions.

Any clue? I thought that the latest version of matlab will just get better but it does not seem that way. I am thus back to running these programmes with earlier versions.

PB

[HoutanBastani]

Dynare 4.2.2 was released in October 2012 so, clearly, any changes that Mathworks made to Matlab after that date could impact the way Dynare works.

So, my advice to you is first to update your version of Dynare to 4.4.2 and to use a version of Matlab that was released before the version of Dynare that you are using. In the case of 4.4.2, which was released in March 2014, this means using Matlab 2013b or earlier.

[parantap]

Actually I am using 4.4.2. It was a typo in my post. Sorry about that. The problem is happening with the latest version of dynare. I think matlab2014a has some incompatibility. I have no problem with 2013a version of matlab

[jpfeifer]

For the first problem, could you provide us with an excel file and a mod-file where the problem occurs?

The second problem does not sound like an incompatibility, but rather like a deficiency related to different random number generators. Have you tried a different mode_compute?

[parantap]

Thanks. the programme is working fine now in matlab 2013a environment. I got rid of 2014a.

occasionally in mode compute it ends up with an expression badg2 = 0 but then the MCMC runs smoothly. This happens in the newer matlab but not always in 2009 version.

P