“I work as Head of Research Division at the Financial Stability and Regulation Directorate. One of our goals is to construct and develop a DSGE model with financial frictions, and capture non-linear effects in DSGE models, particularly borrowing and equity constraints. Participating in the Macroeconomic Modeling for Open Economies 2 was a great opportunity for me to expand my theoretical knowledge and technical skills in this field. 

My learning experience was rich, challenging, and very engaging. The course was well structured and gave a comprehensive and in-depth overview of the covered topics, including also hands-on exercises and follow-up discussions. Moreover, the course provided insights into new developments in the estimation of non-liner macroeconomic models, especially taking into account the zero lower bound and occasionally binding constraints. The course helped me acquire technical skills not only to design but also solve and estimate non-linear effects in DSGE models. 

I consider all these new technical skills very important in my work to contribute to expanding the macroeconomic modeling toolkit available at the Central Bank of Armenia. I am very grateful for the opportunity to take part in this course, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in expanding their macroeconomic modeling skills.

The lectures and best country practices enriched our professional expertise, deepened our understanding of conducting economic policies and the policy challenges, and how other countries have implemented those challenges in their models. The established culture of sharing knowledge and best practices is powerful, as it strengthens capacity building, empowers collaborative problem-solving, supports regional cooperation, and promotes better economic policies. I found it to be an extremely useful and important element of the course, getting one think beyond one’s own country-specific modeling challenges, and also alarming about potential future issues.”