DICE Model Discussion as of January 1, 2009  

The new DICE-2007 model is available for public use. This following provides the DICE-2007 model, with a writeup, documentation, and model.  

A. Papers and documentation:

 

  1. The major study describing the DICE-2007 model has been published by Yale University Press as A Question of Balance: Economic Modeling of Global Warming. A prepublication version (with a few remaining typos and problems) is available, click here, click here (version of February 2008).
  2. If you would like to purchase a copy, it is available at about $22.
  3. The documentation as lab notes is available, click here (version of October 5, 2007).  

 

B. Running the DICE model in a simplified version (version 2007.delta.8): The model is available without any "include" files, click here.

Note: This version contains the baseline (no control), the Hotelling, and the optimal run. Also note that you need to full version of the GAMS program; it will not run on the student edition of GAMS.

 

C. There is a beta EXCEL version of the (version 2007.delta.8b),

 

1. For an Excel 2007 version (.xlsx). click here. This has not been fully checked but is close to the DICE2007 described in B. Please report any problems to the author.

2. For an Excel 2003 version (.xls). click here. This was converted from the xlsx version and is a beta-beta that has not been checked.

Note: The EXCEL version contains both a baseline and an "optimal" run. If users change the parameters, the optimal can be resolved using the EXCEL Solver routine, or the Premium Platform Solver available commercially. Users should be warned that these are not always footproof.

D. Running the DICE model (DICE-2007.delta.v8) with all the alternative runs (this is pretty complicated).

 

1.         You can access the GAMS files in the directory http://www.econ.yale.edu/~nordhaus/DICE2007_programs or click here.

2.         Copy all the .gms files into a single directory.

3.         Note that running the model requires definition files ("def_***.gms") for each of the different runs that are included.

4.         The "put*.gms" file is useful for reporting the output of the different runs.

5.         Start a new GAMS project.

6.         Run DICE_delta_v8_071707.GMS.

7.         You may have to rename the directory structure so that the program will read and write where you want it. If you get errors in running the program, that some files cannot be found, this is likely to be the reason. In this case, it may be necessary to rename the include statements to point to the directory in which the programs are located.

 

E. Notes on the description of the different runs, you should look at the background paper in A.1 above.

 

NOTE TO USERS: Please report any problems to the author at william.nordhaus@yale.edu.