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Disagreement and Biases in Inflation Expectations

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Author Info
Carlos Capistrán
Allan Timmermann

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Abstract

Recent empirical work documents substantial disagreement in inflation expectations obtained from survey data. Furthermore, the extent of such disagreement varies systematically over time in a way that reflects the level and variance of current inflation. This paper offers a simple explanation for these facts based on asymmetries in the forecaster's costs of over- and under-predicting inflation. Our model implies biased forecasts with positive serial correlation in forecast errors and a cross-sectional dispersion that rises with the level and the variance of the inflation rate. It also implies that biases in forecaster's ranks should be preserved over time and that forecast errors at different horizons can be predicted through the spread between the short- and long-term variance of inflation. We find empirically that these patterns are present in inflation forecasts from the Survey of Professional Forecasters.

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Paper provided by Banco de México in its series Working Papers with number 2006-07.

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Date of creation: Jun 2006
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Handle: RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2006-07

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Related research
Keywords: Inflation; Expectations; Forecasting; Asymmetric loss; Inflation dynamics;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Other Model Applications
E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Wilbert van der Klaauw & Wändi Bruine de Bruin & Giorgio Topa & Simon Potter & Michael Bryan, 2008. "Rethinking the measurement of household inflation expectations: preliminary findings," Staff Reports 359, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
  2. Clements, Michael P, 2006. "Internal consistency of survey respondents.forecasts : Evidence based on the Survey of Professional Forecasters," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 772, University of Warwick, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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