This one-week intensive course will introduces participants to the equations and data structure of TERM -- a multiregional CGE model of a single country -- and provides them with extensive hands-on experience with the GEMPACK software used to solve CGE models.
For 2012 the course took place at Citigate Hotel Sydney from 9am Monday 26th November to 6pm Friday 30th November.
TERM (The Enormous Regional Model) is a multiregional CGE model of a single country, which is "bottom-up" -- it treats each region as a separate economy. Two key features of TERM are: (a) its ability to solve quickly with a large number of regions or sectors, and (b) its database construction methodology, which allows a multiregional database to be constructed quickly, even with quite limited regional data.
The first, Australian, version of TERM distinguished 144 sectors and 57 regions. More recently, its master database has been extended to represent 172 sectors in 206 statistical sub-divisions (SSDs), so that urban areas, water catchment areas and tourism regions may all be distinguished accurately. The high degree of regional detail makes TERM a useful tool for examining the regional impacts of shocks (especially supply-side shocks) that may be region-specific. Finally, TERM has a particularly detailed treatment of transport costs and is naturally suited to simulating the effects of improving particular road or rail links.
Versions of TERM have been prepared for Brazil, Finland, China, Indonesia, South Africa, Poland, and Japan. The course material is mainly based on the South African version but would apply with small modification to other versions of TERM. There may be one lab session using an Australian version of TERM.
Read more about the TERM model.
The course runs from Monday 9am to Friday 6pm. During the first 3.5 days, about equal time is spent on lectures, explaining CGE theory as applied to TERM, and on lab sessions designed to teach how to compute and explain simulation results. Then, participants form into groups, each focused on running and analysing different simulations. On Friday afternoon the groups present and explain their simulation results.
The course should appeal to those needing background in CGE modelling in order to work with, or understand results from a typical multi-regional CGE model, and to those wishing to learn CGE modelling using GEMPACK.
Download the detailed provisional Course Program.
Course participants receive a folder, containing
At the end of the course participants receive one or more CD/DVDs, containing
Each participant also receives a copy of this 
Book published by Springer: "Economic Modeling of Water: The Australian CGE
Experience", Edited by Glyn Wittwer.
The book focuses on the application on a specially-adapted dynamic version of the TERM model to Australian drought problems
and water-management policies.
As with our introductory Practical GE Modelling Course, previous hands-on experience in solving GE models is not required. Again we require that course participants have:
Nevertheless this course is more technically demanding than the Practical GE Modelling course, and we expect that many participants will have previous exposure to CGE modelling. To avoid boring those who have already learnt the basics, we have chosen to present a slightly different set of techniques from those used in the Practical GE course.
If you have not worked with GEMPACK before, you should download and work through the MINIMAL course material. Although far simpler, the MINIMAL model and course use similar notation and software to TERM. To go further, you could:
Please note that participants need to bring their own laptops and install GEMPACK before the course.
$A4000 (academic or student)
$A5500 (government)
$A7500 (consulting firms)
$A3500 (overseas participants)
The fee includes GST and covers course materials (including software), morning and afternoon teas and 5 lunches. It does not cover accommodation, breakfast or dinner.
Download the registration form, and email the completed form to Louise Pinchen
phone: (03) 9919 1877 from overseas +613 9919 1877
Options for payment can be found on the registration form.
Participants are required to arrange their own accommodation. Course will be held in Citigate Hotel Sydney but there are many other nearby accommodation options.
Dr Glyn Wittwer phone: (03) 9919 1493 from overseas +613 9919 1493
Louise Pinchen phone: (03) 9919 1877 from overseas +613 9919 1877
See also:
Main Training Courses page
Previous course photos
TERM webpage