The «macrometrics» toolbox
I teach a course on «Empirical Tools for Macroeconomics» at the University of Basel, the materials to which are publicly available in the form of the «macrometrics toolbox». The offers an applied introduction to methods used in modern macroeconomics. Broadly speaking, the course consists of two parts.
1. «Macroeconomic shocks: Applied business cycle analysis with time series data»
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- The first focus is on estimation methods, i.e. how to estimate (potentially nonlinear) dynamic relationships between macroeconomic aggregates. Methods covered: vector autoregressive models, local projections, including nonlinear models such as Interacted VARs
- The second focus is on identification, i.e. to pin down cause and effect from endogenous time series. Methods covered: zero and sign restrictions, instrumental variable identification, a glimpse of DSGE estimation
- Handbook from an earlier iteration of the course, update available soon.
2. «Macroeconomics under the microscope: Theory and policy lessons from granular data»
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- Details and handbook available soon
Toolbox: The course comes with a toolbox of codes in Matlab, R and/or Stata that replicate papers using the methods introduced during the course. This toolbox is freely available to download and use. All codes are contained in the folder /mm_2_2/, calling the relevant functions in the subfolder(s of) ./tbx/. No paid-for extensions to a plain-vanilla student version of Matlab are required.
Tutorials: In addition to the codes, I provide «code walk-through» video tutorials for some of the models. Please contact me to gain access to these video tutorials.