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Perceptions and Expectations of Inflation by U.S. Households

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Abstract

To better understand inflation expectations, we examine newly available data on U.S. households' inflation perceptions-what people think inflation has been in the past. The overarching summary is that inflation perceptions look similar to inflation expectations. The central tendencies of the responses for perceived inflation over the past five to ten years are similar to those of expected inflation for the next five to ten years, and all are a little above official estimates of inflation. Thus, survey respondents overall do not expect long-term inflation to change in the future relative to the recent past. Moreover, individuals who perceive higher inflation in the past tend to expect higher inflation in the future; people whose perceptions change tend to revise their expectations in the same direction; and perceptions and expectations vary similarly by gender and income. These results suggest that if inflation perceptions were to change, they could lead inflation e xpectations to change as well.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandor Axelrod & David E. Lebow & Ekaterina V. Peneva, 2018. "Perceptions and Expectations of Inflation by U.S. Households," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2018-073, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2018-73
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2018.073
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    1. Alan K. Detmeister & Daeus Jorento & Emily Massaro & Ekaterina V. Peneva, 2015. "Did the Fed's Announcement of an Inflation Objective Influence Expectations?," FEDS Notes 2015-06-08-2, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    2. Olivier Armantier & Scott Nelson & Giorgio Topa & Wilbert van der Klaauw & Basit Zafar, 2016. "The Price Is Right: Updating Inflation Expectations in a Randomized Price Information Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(3), pages 503-523, July.
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    14. Brent Meyer & Guhan Venkatu, 2011. "Demographic differences in inflation expectations: what do they really mean?," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue May.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Are we expecting too much inflation? : CPI vs. University of Michigan’s survey of consumers’ inflation expectations
      by ? in FRED blog on 2021-03-25 13:00:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Abildgren, Kim & Kuchler, Andreas, 2021. "Revisiting the inflation perception conundrum," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Dash, Pradyumna & Rohit, Abhishek Kumar & Devaguptapu, Adviti, 2020. "Assessing the (de-)anchoring of households’ long-term inflation expectations in the US," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer surveys; Inflation dynamics; Inflation expectations; Inflation perceptions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

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