The Standard Narrative about DSGE Models in Central Banks’ Technical Reports

Historians of macroeconomics, through the analysis of articles in peer-review journals, pointed out macroeconomists’ propensity to elaborate narratives about the history of their discipline. This article extends the analysis of self-produced narratives to a different genre of literature—namely technical reports on DSGE models published by central banks and other policy-making institutions. This literature adopts a narrative displaying two distinctive characteristics: the emphasis on “consensus” (leading to “better microfoundations”) and on “technical change” (enhancing the “fit” between theory and “facts”). Relying on these two arguments, the narrative told in technical reports conveys a rhetorical argument to legitimize the use of DSGE models in policy institutions.