Announcement for Dynare 4.2.4 (on 2011-12-02)
=============================================

We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 4.2.4.

This is a bugfix release. It comes only a few days after the previous release,
because version 4.2.3 was affected by a critical bug (see below).

The Windows package for the new release is already available for download at
the official Dynare website <http://www.dynare.org>. The Mac and Linux packages
should follow soon.

All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade, especially those who have
installed the buggy 4.2.3 release.

The new release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 7.0 (R14) to
7.13 (R2011b) and with GNU Octave versions ranging from 3.0 to 3.4.

Here is the list of the problems identified in version 4.2.3 and that have been
fixed in version 4.2.4:

 * Second order approximation was broken for most models, giving incorrect
   results (this problem only affects version 4.2.3, not previous versions)

 * Bayesian priors with inverse gamma distribution and very small variances
   were giving incorrect results in some cases

 * The `model_diagnostics' command was broken


Announcement for Dynare 4.2.3 (on 2011-11-30)
=============================================

We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 4.2.3.

This is a bugfix release.

The Windows package is already available for download at the official
Dynare website <http://www.dynare.org>. The Mac and Linux packages
should follow soon.

All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 7.0 (R14)
to 7.13 (R2011b) and with GNU Octave versions ranging from 3.0 to 3.4.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the problems identified in version 4.2.2 and
that have been fixed in version 4.2.3:

 * `steady_state_model' was broken for lags higher than 2

 * `simult_.m' was not working correctly with `order=3' if `k_order_solver' had
   not been explicitly specified

 * `stoch_simul' with `order=3' and without `periods' option was reporting
   dummy theoretical moments

 * Under Octave, option `solve_algo=0' was causing crashes in `check' and
   `stoch_simul'

 * Identification module was broken

 * The test for singularity in the model reporting eigenvalues close to 0/0 was
   sometimes reporting false positives

 * The `conditional_variance_decomposition' option was not working if one
   period index was 0. Now, Dynare reports an error if the periods are not
   strictly positive.

 * Second order approximation was buggy if one variable was not present at the
   current period


Announcement for Dynare 4.2.2 (on 2011-10-04)
=============================================

We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 4.2.2.

This is a bugfix release.

The Windows package is already available for download at the official
Dynare website <http://www.dynare.org>. The Mac and Linux packages
should follow soon.

All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 7.0 (R14)
to 7.13 (R2011b) and with GNU Octave versions ranging from 3.0 to 3.4.

Here is a list of the problems identified in version 4.2.1 and that have
been fixed in version 4.2.2:

 * The secondary rank test following the order test of the Blanchard and
   Kahn condition was faulty and almost never triggered

 * The variance prior for BVAR “à la Sims” with only one lag was
   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 `conditional_forecast' command was buggy: it was always using the
   posterior mode, whatever the value of the `parameter_set' option

 * `STEADY_STATE' was not working correctly with certain types of
   expressions (the priority of the addition and substraction operators
   was incorrectly handled)

 * With the `block' option of `model', the preprocessor was failing on
   expressions of the form "a^b" (with no endogenous in "a" but an
   endogenous in "b")

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

 * `external_function' was crashing in some circumstances

 * The lambda parameter for HP filter was restricted to integer values
   for no good reason

 * The `load_mh_file' option of `estimation' was crashing under Octave
   for Windows (MinGW version)

 * Computation of steady state was failing on model contains auxiliary
   variables created by leads or lags larger than 2 or by of the
   `EXPECTATION' operator

 * Compilation of MEX files for MATLAB was failing with GCC 4.6


Announcement for Dynare 4.2.1 (on 2011-05-24)
=============================================

We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 4.2.1.

Many bugs have been fixed since the previous release. The reference
manual has also been improved: new contents has been added at various
places, the structure has been improved, an index of functions and
variables has been added, the PDF/HTML rendering has been improved.

The Windows package is already available for download at the official
Dynare website [1]. The Mac and Linux packages should follow soon.

All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 7.0 (R14)
to 7.12 (R2011a) and with GNU Octave versions ranging from 3.0 to 3.4.

Here is a list of the main bugfixes since version 4.2.0:

 * The `STEADY_STATE' operator has been fixed

 * Problems with MATLAB 7.3 (R2006b) and older have been fixed

 * The `partial_information' option of `stoch_simul' has been fixed

 * Option `conditional_variance_decomposition' of `stoch_simul' and
   `estimation' has been fixed
 
 * Automatic detrending now works in conjunction with the `EXPECTATION'
   operator

 * Percentage signs inside strings in MATLAB statements (like disp('%
   This is not a comment %')) now work

 * Beta prior with a very small standard deviation now work even if you
   do not have the MATLAB Statistical toolbox

 * External functions can now been used in assignment of model local
   variables

 * `identification' command has been fixed

 * Option `cova_compute' of `estimation' command has been fixed

 * Random crashes with 3rd order approximation without `use_dll' option
   have been eliminated

[1] http://www.dynare.org


Announcement for Dynare 4.2.0 (on 2011-02-15)
=============================================

We are pleased to announce the release of Dynare 4.2.0.

This major release adds new features and fixes various bugs.

The Windows package is already available for download. The Mac and Linux
packages should follow soon.

All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

This release is compatible with MATLAB versions ranging from 6.5 (R13) to 7.11
(R2010b) and with GNU Octave versions 3.0.x and 3.2.x (support for GNU Octave
3.4.x is not complete and will be added in the next minor release).

Here is the list of major user-visible changes:

* New solution algorithms: 

  - Pruning for second order simulations has been added, as described in Kim,
    Kim, Schaumburg and Sims (2008) [1,2]

  - Models under partial information can be solved, as in Pearlman, Currie and
    Levine (1986) [3,4]

  - New nonlinear solvers for faster deterministic simulations and steady state
    computation [5]

* Dynare can now use the power of multi-core computers or of a cluster of
  computer using parallelization [6]

* New features in the user interface:

  - A steady state file can now be automatically generated, provided that the
    model can be solved analytically, and that the steady state as a function
    of the parameters is declared with the new "steady_state_model" command [7]

  - For non-stationary models, Dynare is now able of automatically removing
    trends in all the equations: the user writes the equations in
    non-stationary form and declares the deflator of each variable. Then Dynare
    perform a check to determine if the proposed deflators are compatible with
    balanced growth path, and, if yes, then it computes the detrended equations
    [8]

  - It is now possible to use arbitrary functions in the model block [9]

* Other minor changes to the user interface:

  - New primitives allowed in model block: normpdf(), erf()

  - New syntax for DSGE-VAR [10]

  - Syntax of deterministic shocks has changed: after the values keyword,
    arbitrary expressions must be enclosed within parentheses (but numeric
    constants are still accepted as is) 

* Various improvements:

  - Third order simulations now work without the "USE_DLL" option:
    installing a C++ compiler is no longer necessary for 3rd order

  - The HP filter works for empirical moments (previously it was only available
    for theoretical moments)

  - "ramsey_policy" now displays the planner objective value function under
    Ramsey policy and stores it in "oo_.planner_objective_value"

  - Estimation: if the "selected_variables_only" option is present, then the
    smoother will only be run on variables listed just after the estimation
    command

  - Estimation: in the "shocks" block, it is now possible to calibrate
    measurement errors on endogenous variables (using the same keywords than
    for calibrating variance/covariance matrix of exogenous shocks)

  - It is possibile to choose the parameter set for shock decomposition [11]

  - The diffuse filter now works under Octave

  - New option "console" on the Dynare command-line: use it when running Dynare
    from the console, it will replace graphical waitbars by text waitbars for
    long computations

  - Steady option "solve_algo=0" (uses fsolve()) now works under Octave 

* For Emacs users:

   - New Dynare mode for Emacs editor (contributed by Yannick Kalantzis)

   - Reference manual now available in Info format (distributed with
     Debian/Ubuntu packages)

* Miscellaneous:

   - Deterministic models: leads and lags of two or more on endogenous
     variables are now substituted by auxiliary variables; exogenous variables
     are left as is [12]

[1] Kim, J., S. Kim, E. Schaumburg and C.A. Sims (2008), "Calculating and using
    second-order accurate solutions of discrete time dynamic equilibrium
    models", Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 32(11), 3397-3414
[2] It is triggered by option "pruning" of "stoch_simul" (only 2nd order, not
    available at 3rd order)
[3] Pearlman J., D. Currie and P. Levine (1986), "Rational expectations models
    with partial information", Economic Modelling, 3(2), 90-105
[4] http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/PartialInformation
[5] http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/FastDeterministicSimulationAndSteadyStateComputation
[6] http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/ParallelDynare
[7] See the entry for "steady_state_model" in the reference manual for more
    details and an example
[8] http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/RemovingTrends
[9] http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/ExternalFunctions
[10] http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/DsgeVar
[11] http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/ShockDecomposition
[12] http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/AuxiliaryVariables
