This address considers the epidemiology of narratives relevant to economic fluctuations. The human brain has always … been highly tuned towards narratives, whether factual or not, to justify ongoing actions, even such basic actions as … spending and investing. Stories motivate and connect activities to deeply felt values and needs. Narratives "go viral" and …

We study the generation, transmission, and effects of causal narratives - narratives which describe a (potentially … narratives manipulate the beliefs and actions of subjects in ways predicted by theory. We then show how to 'grow' these types of … narratives organically by asking subjects who observe a dataset of variables to advise future subjects on what actions to take …

We study the macroeconomic implications of narratives, defined as beliefs about the economy that spread contagiously …. In an otherwise standard business-cycle model, narratives generate persistent and belief-driven fluctuations …. Sufficiently contagious narratives can "go viral," generating hysteresis in the model's unique equilibrium. Empirically, we use …