Computational Economics

This course has two aims. Firstly, students will be introduced to the use of modern computational techniques for quantitative economic research. We will learn about the Fortran programming language and how numerical solution techniques are applied to mathematics and economics problems. In particular, we examine solution techniques for dynamic programming problems.

In the second part of the course, students apply these techniques to analyse standard macroeconomics models and life cycle decisions. Depending on student demand, we study models of business cycles, economies with heterogeneous agents, life-cycle models of labour supply, consumption and saving decisions, and models of financial investment in bonds, stocks and life-cycle products such as pensions or retirement accounts.