The Disaggregated Motor Vehicle Tariff Application (Static Expectations)

This is the disaggregated version of the Motor Vehicle Tariff application which is the main application of the MONASH Model in the MONASH Model Book.

The results reported in the book were obtained using this disaggregated (115-commodity) data base.

Note that a GEMPACK licence (at least an Introductory licence) is required to solve this disaggregated version.

We assume here that you have already downloaded and solved the aggregated (33-commodity) version of this application. In particular, the instructions that we give here assume that you have worked through the aggregated version.

1. Download the example application

This 115-commodity data supplied with this application is provided to complete the academic integrity of the MONASH Model Book, in particular to allow readers of the book to replicate and analyse the results reported there. This data must not be used for other purposes.

By downloading this application, you agree to the above conditions.

Save as MONMVSE.ZIP (6.5 Mb) in the ARCHIVE subdirectory of the directory in which you installed RunDynam.

2. Load the example application into RunDynam

Start RunDynam running by double clicking on the RunDynam icon on your desktop.

Select, from the File menu, the item
Restore Ingredients from ZIP Archive
and follow the instructions below.

Select the ZIP archive MONMVSE.ZIP which you downloaded (see above).

You will then be asked to specify the directory to restore the files to. We suggest that you specify the MONMVSE subdirectory of the directory in which you installed RunDynam. [Probably RunDynam will make this suggestion to you.]

Then agree to all the suggestions that RunDynam makes. At the end you should see a message saying that "Restored application is now the current application.".

3. An overview of the example application

Have a look at the different pages in the tabbed notebook that RunDynam shows. These are labelled Introduction, Model/Data, Sim Overview, Closure/Shock, Results, Files.

On the Model/Data page (click on the Model/Data tab to get there), you can see the name of the program MONASH.EXE which will solve the model for each year of the Base Case and Policy runs.
You can also see the names of the starting data files. If you wish to look at the actual data, right click on the FID line in the memo "Input Files for First Year of Base Case" and select option "View this file".

On the Sim Overview page you can see that the Base Case and Policy runs will cover 20 years, starting with data for the year 1997 and producing data for each year from 1998 to 2017.

On the Closure/Shocks page you can see the different files used for the closure and shocks for each of the 20 years of the Base Case and the Policy. Note that there are different Closure files for the different years of the Base, and different Shocks files for the different years. To see one of the closure files, right click on R02.CLS (under Base Closures) and select "Edit". [But be careful not to make any changes to this file.] You might also like to look at one or more of the Base Shocks files. A very detailed Base Case (that is, forecast) is produced for this application.

RunDynam is completely documented in the extensive Help file which is supplied with it. To see this, click on menu item Contents under the Help menu.

4. Running the Base Case

Click on the Run Base Case button near the bottom of the screen.

RunDynam will solve for the 20 years of the Base Case. [This will take an hour or two.]

When the whole run has finished, you can look at the results on the Results page.

For example, click on the Spreadsheet button. You may need to tell RunDynam where your spreadsheet program (eg, Excel) is located. You will see the year-on-year results for each year of the Base Case. You should see, for example, that gdpreal (real GDP) increases by about 3.93 percent in the first year (1998), by about 3.87 percent in the second year (1999) and so on.

Since the application is concerned with a change in the planned tariff rates for imported motor vehicles, you might like to look at the results for x0ind(I68MotorVeh) which is the percentage changes in output of the motor vehicles industry. [See the row labelled x0ind(I68MotorVeh) in the spreadsheet you opened above.] Note that output is increasing nearly every year in the Base Case (although the increases vary from year to year). The increase is 0.57 percent in 1998, just negative in 2001 and is 2.28 percent in 2017. The average annual increase is 1.69 percent (see the last number in the x0ind(I68MotorVeh) row.]

It is a good idea to close your spreadsheet program before you continue since the spreadsheet file you have open will be accessed by RunDynam during these later runs.

5. ReRunning the Base Case with the Policy Closures

Click on the ReRun Base button near the bottom of the screen. For simplicity, say "No" when asked if you want to check that the prerequisites are ok.

RunDynam will solve for the 16 years of the Base Rerun, this time using the Policy closures rather than the Base closures. Note that the Rerun starts with the simulation for the year 2002 since there are no policy shocks before that year. [This will take an hour or two.]

You would expect that the results are essentially the same as for the Base Case. This is correct. However there are technical reasons (which we don't go into here) for Rerunning the Base Case before doing the Policy runs.

Again click on the Spreadsheet button on the Results page (first making sure that "Base Rerun", "All" (years) and "Year-on-year" are selected). Have a look at the results for gdpreal and x0ind(I68MotorVeh). They should be very similar to the corresponding results from the Base Case. [Note that the Rerun starts with results for the year 2002 since there are no policy shocks before that year. The gdpreal results for year 2002 are 3.32724 (Rerun) and 3.32906 (Base). As you can see they are very similar.]

6. Running the Policy

Click on the Run Policy button near the bottom of the screen. For simplicity, say "No" when asked if you want to check that the prerequisites are ok.

RunDynam will solve for the 16 years of the Policy. [This will take an hour or two.]

When the whole run has finished, you can look at the results on the Results page.

For example, in the "Results for All/Several Years" part (the top part) of the Results page, make sure that "Differences - Policy v Base" and "Cumulative" are selected. Then click on the Spreadsheet button. You will see the cumulative differences between the Policy results and the Base Case results. You should see, for example, that the gdpreal differences are rather small. For example, the differences for years 2002 and 2003 are 0.001 and 0.004 respectively.

Have a look at the x0ind(I68MotorVeh) results. You will see that the result for 2002 is -1.66 which means that the output of the industry will be 1.66 percent lower in Policy than in the forecast. The result for 2017 is -5.84 which means that output is 5.84 percent lower in 2017 in Policy than in the Base.

If you want to see the implications for x0ind(I68MotorVeh) graphically, you can follow the same steps as in the aggregated version of this application to obtain a graph which shows the growth in the output of motor vehicles in both the Base and the Policy.

You may wish to compare the results you have just obtained with those in the MONASH Model book.

You will want to read the MONASH Model book to read the authors' explanations of these results.

7. Other Things to Try

You can use ViewSOL to look at the results via the Graph/ViewSOL, button on the Results page. You can draw graphs from within ViewSOL (see the ViewSOL's Help menu item).

You can try other policy shocks.

You can build a different Base Case.

Don't forget the Help file.

You can solve with the aggregated version of this application using rational expectations.

Go back to
Motor Vehicle Application Page