Confidence and the Propagation of Demand Shocks

This paper subsumes earlier versions, entitled “A (Real) Theory of the Keynesian Multiplier” and “On the Propagation of Demand Shocks,” that contained somewhat different frameworks. We are grateful to the editor, Veronica Guerrieri, and three anonymous referees for extensive feedback that helped improve and reshape the paper. For useful comments, we also thank Susanto Basu, Jesse Benhabib, Marty Eichenbaum, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Cosmin Ilut, JianjunMiao, Emi Nakamura, Jón Steinsson, and seminar participants at BU, Berkeley, CREI, Cornell, Goethe University, NYU, MIT, FSU, SF Fed, the 2018 AEA meeting, the 2018 SED meeting, the 2020 NBER Summer Institute, and the 2020 NBER Monetary Economics Fall Meeting. Angeletos acknowledges the financial support of the National Science Foundation, Award #1757198. Lian acknowledges the financial support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Behavioral Macroeconomics, awarded through the NBER. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• August 13, 2020