Running Dynare from MATLAB

Running Dynare from MATLAB#

Dynare is often used as an extension from within MATLAB. Files are usually identified as .mod, though many other countries also use that extension.

Warning

Use the precise version of Dynare specified by the authors. If that version is not located on L:\common (CCSS Cloud) or /home2/ecco_lv39/software or as a Docker file, then talk to your supervisor.

Obtaining Dynare#

Dynare is available for download from https://www.dynare.org/download/. But pay attention to the details for the platform where you will run this!

Do not attempt to install Dynare on CCSS or BioHPC computers.

However, it is not necessary to install Dynare, it is sufficient to unpack the ZIP files. Try the information below first:

If a specific version is mentioned and is not there, download it from the Dynare website - choose the ZIP version. Then unzip it to the L: drive (move it around if necessary so you get the same structure as in the example above, i.e. L:\common\dynare\(SOME VERSION)\matlab). Then include the addpath command as before.

The preferred way to run Dynare on BioHPC is through the use of Docker.

This is very technical!

Your mileage will vary, ask for help if you need to do this and don’t know how.

Simple command line

  • Obtain the value of SERVER from your supervisor.

  • Look up the full Docker tag from the Dynare Docker Hub page and set the DYNARE variable accordingly. Each Dynare version is paired with a specific version of MATLAB.

    • You should use the precise version of Dynare that the authors used, or a very close one.

    • Ideally, you should use the same or higher version of MATLAB, but that is much less sensitive.

  • If running elsewhere, you should replace docker1 with docker in the command below.

SERVER=something
dockerbin=docker1
MLM_LICENSE_FILE=${MLM_LICENSE_FILE:-27000@${SERVER}.cornell.edu}
DYNARE=6.5-R2025b
$dockerbin run --rm -it \
   -v $(pwd):/project \
   -w /project \
   -e MLM_LICENSE_FILE=$MLM_LICENSE_FILE \
   --entrypoint /bin/bash \
   dynare/dynare:$DYNARE

  • You may need to put these lines into an sbatch file. See the tools/sbatch-shell.sh file for an example of how to do this (included in every repo).

Configuring MATLAB to recognize Dynare#

  • Be sure to include the config.m file as outlined in Configuring MATLAB!

  • Inspect the last part of the config.m, it should have code much like the following:

%%% Dynare settings
%
% The following are possible Dynare settings. Uncomment the one you need.

% dynarepath = "/Applications/Dynare/4.6.1/matlab"
% dynarepath = "L:\LDILab\dynare\dynare-4.5.7\matlab"
%dynarepath = "L:\common\dynare-4.5.7\matlab"

% 
% Then uncomment the following line:
%
%addpath(genpath(dynarepath))

  • You will want the path for the system you are working on. If CCSS Cloud, use the L: path. If on BioHPC, you will need to add a path like /home2/ecco_lv39/software/dynare-x.y.z.

  • Then uncomment the addpath() statement at the end.

Your modified config.m should look somewhat like this:

%%% Dynare settings
%
% The following are possible Dynare settings. Uncomment the one you need.

% dynarepath = "/Applications/Dynare/4.6.1/matlab"
% dynarepath = "L:\LDILab\dynare\dynare-4.5.7\matlab"

dynarepath = "L:\common\dynare-4.5.7\matlab"

% 
% Then uncomment the following line:
%

addpath(genpath(dynarepath))

The Matlab program should now run, and call out to the Dynare software as needed.

Additional info#

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