Near-Rational Equilibria in Heterogeneous-Agent Models: A Verification Method

49 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2019 Last revised: 19 May 2022

See all articles by Leonid Kogan

Leonid Kogan

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Indrajit Mitra

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: October 7, 2019

Abstract

We propose a general simulation-based procedure for estimating quality of approximate policies in heterogeneous-agent equilibrium models, which allows to verify that such approximate solutions describe a near-rational equilibrium. Our procedure endows agents with superior knowledge of the future path of the economy, while imposing a suitable penalty for such foresight. The relaxed problem is more tractable than the original, and results in an upper bound on agents' welfare. Our method is general, straightforward to implement, and can be used in conjunction with various solution algorithms. We illustrate our approach in two applications: the incomplete-markets model of Krusell and Smith (1998) and the heterogeneous firm model of Khan and Thomas (2008).

Keywords: Heterogenous Agent Economies, Equilibrium Solution, Heuristic Methods

JEL Classification: E10, E20, E30, G12, C68

Suggested Citation

Kogan, Leonid and Mitra, Indrajit, Near-Rational Equilibria in Heterogeneous-Agent Models: A Verification Method (October 7, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3465120 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3465120

Leonid Kogan

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

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Indrajit Mitra (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ( email )

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