Working Paper
Short-term Planning, Monetary Policy, and Macroeconomic Persistence
López-Salido, J. David; Gust, Christopher J.; Herbst, Edward (2020-01-08)
This paper uses aggregate data to estimate and evaluate a behavioral New Keynesian (NK) model in which households and firms plan over a finite horizon. The finite-horizon (FH) model outperforms rational expectations versions of the NK model commonly used in empirical applications as well as other behavioral NK models. The better fit of the FH model reflects that it can induce slow-moving trends in key endogenous variables which deliver substantial persistence in output and inflation dynamics. In the FH model, households and firms are forward-looking in thinking about events over their ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2020-003

Working Paper
Substitution Bias and Fixed-Weight Price Indices in Time-Dependent Pricing Models
Christiano, Lawrence J.; Eichenbaum, Martin S.; Johannsen, Benjamin K. (2025-04-08)
This paper compares inflation in true price indices to inflation in fixed-weight price indices. We construct model-based inflation measures in time-dependent pricing models that are analogous to measures of inflation in the data, e.g., the Consumer Price Index. In the standard new Keynesian model, when inflation rises rapidly, the differences between inflation in those indices and true price indices are increasing in the degree of price stickiness and the elasticity of substitution across goods. For commonly used parameter values, those differences are large and persistent for increases in ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2024-095r1

Working Paper
Measured Inflation and the New-Keynesian Model
Christiano, Lawrence J.; Eichenbaum, Martin S.; Johannsen, Benjamin K. (2024-12-20)
Researchers typically compare inflation in the new Keynesian (NK) model to published inflation measures constructed from indices like the CPI. Inflation in the standard NK model without price indexation is bounded above. The model analogue of fixed-weight inflation measures, like the CPI, is not. When inflation is in the range of values observed after 2021, there is a substantial difference between model-based and fixed-weight measures of inflation. This finding poses a challenge to using linear approximations to the NK model in environments with moderately high inflation and implies that ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2024-095