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Econometrica Vol. 83 No. 2 2015

Sentiments and Aggregate Demand Fluctuations

Jess Benhabib1; Pengfei Wang2; Yi Wen3,4

1 New York University · 2 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology · 3 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · 4 Tsinghua University

Abstract

We formalize the Keynesian insight that aggregate demand driven by sentiments can generate output fluctuations under rational expectations. When production decisions must be made under imperfect information about demand, optimal decisions based on sentiments can generate stochastic self-fulfilling rational expectations equilibria in standard economies without persistent informational frictions, externalities, nonconvexities, or strategic complementarities in production. The models we consider are deliberately simple, but could serve as benchmarks for more complicated equilibrium models with additional features.

DOI
10.3982/ecta11085
Volume
83
Issue
2
Pages
549-585
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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