Empirical Asset Pricing in a DSGE Framework: Reconciling Calibration and Econometrics using Partial Indirect Inference

This paper aims at a critical assessment of the DSGE asset pricing approach. By employing partial indirect inference, we acknowledge that parts of a model are misspecified, while others retain the claim to capture economic reality, namely the ability to price assets traded in real markets. Consequently, we use binding functions that facilitate the consistent estimation of the structural model parameters of interest (concerning investor preferences), while treating others (governing macroeconomic dynamics) as nuisance parameters that are calibrated. The results of our empirical analysis are not unfavorable for the DSGE asset pricing approach, but they also indicate that the very positive interpretation of calibration results, in particular regarding the resolution of asset pricing puzzles, should be taken with a grain of salt.