Posterior Predictive Analysis for Evaluating DSGE Models

In this paper, we develop and apply certain tools to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models. In particular, this paper makes three contributions: One, it argues the need for such tools to evaluate the usefulness of the these models; two, it defines these tools which take the form of prior and particularly posterior predictive analysis and provides illustrations; and three, it provides a justification for the use of these tools in the DSGE context in defense against the standard criticisms for the use of these tools.