Heterogeneity and Aggregate Fluctuations: Insights from TANK Models

Davide Debortoli and Jordi Galí

No 32557, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We analyze the merits and limitations of simple tractable New Keynesian models (RANK and TANK) in accounting for the aggregate predictions of Heterogenous Agent New Keynesian models (HANK). By means of comparison of a number of nested HANK models, we investigate the role played by (i) idiosyncratic income risk, (ii) a binding borrowing constraint, and (iii) a portfolio choice between liquid and illiquid assets. We argue that the effects of household heterogeneity can be largely understood looking at the differential behavior of two types of households: hand-to-mouth and unconstrained. We find that a suitably specified and calibrated TANK model (which abstracts from idiosyncratic income risk) can capture reasonably well the aggregate implications of household heterogeneity and the main channels through which it operates. That ability increases in the presence of a policy rule that emphasizes inflation stability. In the limiting case of a strict inflation targeting policy, heterogeneity becomes irrelevant for the determination of aggregate output.

JEL-codes: E32 E52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge
Note: EFG ME
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Forthcoming: Heterogeneity and Aggregate Fluctuations: Insights from TANK Models , Davide Debortoli, Jordi Galí. in NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2024, volume 39 , Eichenbaum, Leahy, and Ramey. 2024

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Chapter: Heterogeneity and Aggregate Fluctuations: Insights from TANK Models (2024)
Working Paper: Heterogeneity and Aggregate Fluctuations: Insights from TANK Models (2024)
Working Paper: Heterogeneity and Aggregate Fluctuations: Insights from TANK models (2024)
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