Behavioral New Keynesian Models: An empirical assessment

This paper uncovers the fact that cognitive discounting modeled à la Gabaix (2020) is highly generalizable to alternative models and expectational assumptions by offering a mathematically tractable way of introducing behavioral elements in linearized models. This is not the case for other models of bounded rationality, as most derivations, if not all among those proposed up to today, are algebraically too cumbersome to be of general applicability.

This finding is used to introduce cognitive discounting into the Smets and Wouters (2007) model, hence building and estimating the first micro-founded behavioral medium scale DSGE model, to my knowledge. The empirical estimation shows that the data prefers a substantial degree of bounded rationality even in a model with as many frictions as the Smets and Wouters model.