For public release, 29 July 2008.

The root folder for Matlab code should contain exactly two files:

- README.txt              : The file you are currently reading.
- TractableBufferStock.m  : Matlab script that creates 11 plots.

The second file (TBS.m), and all of the .m files that it calls, were written to emulate
the behavior and methods of the TractableBufferStock.nb file (and its children) in the
Mathematica section of this archive.  Variable names are preserved as closely as possible,
with script characters being written "scriptc", etc.  There are a small number of excep-
tions, but there should not be any confusion over these.

Due to differences between Mathematica and Matlab, some functionality could not be trans-
lated into Matlab.  The following deficiencies from the Mathematica version are known to
exist, but this list might not be exhaustive:

- The fsolve is unable to find the correct parameters for the exponential extrapolation of
  precautionary saving unless it is spoonfed the solution as its seed.  Expect odd beha-
  vior in the consumption function above the highest Euler point when non-base parameters
  are used.
- Tick marks in plots cannot handle LaTeX notation or non-standard characters, and thus
  some of the plots aren't as pretty as their Mathematica twins.
- The LaTeX interpreter in Matlab is limited, and thus the character mho is displayed as
  an omega.
- The variable Census only tracks the current state of all generations, rather than the
  state of all generations during any period.  To do the latter would require the use of
  three dimensional arrays, or shoehorning this sort of structure into the two-dimensional
  matrices of Matlab.  This currently has no effect on output functionality.
- The implicit equations for the MPC (and its derivatives) at steady state cannot be der-
  ived by Matlab.  Instead, we have processed these equations from the Mathematica output
  into the appropriate Matlab syntax.  The values are still solved for, using a binary
  search in each case. 

The code has been written to run on both Matlab and Octave (a GNU license "approximation"
to Matlab), but some functionality might be missing in Octave.  In particular, the fsolve
command seems to use different methodology in Octave vs Matlab.  Even when given a seed
that is in fact the correct solution, Octave's fsolve continues to try to find a better
solution, eventually terminating when adequate progress is not made.  Warning handing is
also handled differently in Matlab vs Octave, and so the user should expect a large num-
ber of "Nearly singular matrix" errors when TBS.m is run.

This folder should also contain five subdirectories:

- indivScripts     : Matlab scripts used for solving the individual's consumption problem.
- indivFuncs       : Matlab functions for solving the individual's consumption problem.
- SOEfiles         : Functions and scripts for the small open economy problem & plots.
- plotFiles        : Functions and scripts that generate the eleven plots.
- figures          : The figures generated by TractableBufferStock.m, saved as PNG.

Each of these folders contains a README.txt with a list of the contents of that folder.