Business Cycle Persistence in a Model with Schumpeterian Growth and Uncorrelated Shocks

This paper explores the merits of a DSGE model incorporating Schumpeterian type growth into an otherwise standard RBC model similar to the one in Phillips and Wrase (2006). We consider a model with two exogenous shocks. The first is a standard productivity shock. The second is an aggregate shock to the stock of basic knowledge and arrives as a Poisson process with an arrival rate influenced by economy-wide spending on R\&D. We show that this model is capable of generating both an observed total factor productivity and GDP series that is autocorrelated, even when all the shock processes are serially uncorrelated. We present empirical evidence that the driving process in our model is consistent with the behavior of the U.S. economy