Simulation Modelling for Public Policy Analysis
Instructor Name
Haoqi Qian
Instructor Biography
Haoqi Qian is an Associate Professor at Institute for Global Public Policy, Fudan University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Fudan University. His research interests are energy and environmental governance, policy simulation and evaluation, social economic analysis with big data. He has more than ten years experiences in computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling and has developed the Dynamic Regional Economy-Energy-Environment Analysis Model (DREAM) to conduct large-scale policy modelling, analysis and evaluation at both global and national level. Publications based on DREAM appeared in world leading journals and had produced broad global impacts. In recent years, he is working on applying big data and artificial intelligence to economic analysis and policy simulations. One of the research directions is to combine the agent-based modelling (ABM) with CGE modelling.
Course Description
This course aims to provide the participants with the basic skills of constructing and implementing a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for policy analysis. This course will introduce an intuitive and graphical treatment of economic theory underlying the CGE model, and provide instructions in coding and running the standard CGE model within the General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS) software environment. There will be an emphasis on CGE models using common and well-known problems in public economics, labor economics, international trade, environmental economics among others. This will enable the participants to answer relevant research questions at both the academic and policy levels. Participants who have a well-developed background in economics or a closely related subject will benefit most from this course. Otherwise, they are strongly encouraged to take some introductory courses in advance.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of the course the participants will have the ability to:
Formulate and code appropriate policy experiments;
Interpret the results from simple CGE models;
Build the CGE models from real-world data;
Identify and understand the strengths and limitations of CGE models.
Course Schedule
Lecture | Topic (2.5 teaching hours) |
1 | Introduction of policy simulations and basic economic theories
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2 | Optimization problems using GAMS
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3 | The basic closed-economy CGE model
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4 | The MPS/GE subsystem of GAMS
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5 | Public goods and steady-state models
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6 | Extensions of the basic CGE model
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7 | Build a CGE model for real-word policy analysis
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8 | Climate policy analysis using CGE model
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9 | Multi-regional CGE model
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10 | Toward applied general-equilibrium modeling
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