Towards a compact, empirically verified rational expectations model for monetary policy analysis

This paper extends the sticky-price models of Fuhrer and Moore (1995a,b) to include explicit, optimization-based consumption and investment decisions. The goal is to use the resulting model for monetary policy analysis; consequently, strong emphasis is placed on empirical validation of the model. I use a canonical formulation of the consumer's problem from Campbell and Mankiw (1989), and a time-to-build investment model with costs of adjustment. The restrictions imposed by these models, in conjunction with those imposed on prices and output by the Fuhrer-Moore contracting specification, imply dynamic behavior that is grossly inconsistent with the data.