Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/60957 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Staff Report No. 509
Publisher: 
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, NY
Abstract: 
We compare the inflation expectations reported by consumers in a survey with their behavior in a financially incentivized investment experiment designed such that future inflation affects payoffs. The inflation expectations survey is found to be informative in the sense that the beliefs reported by the respondents are correlated with their choices in the experiment. Furthermore, most respondents appear to act on their inflation expectations showing patterns consistent (both in direction and magnitude) with expected utility theory. Respondents whose behavior cannot be rationalized tend to be less educated and to score lower on a numeracy and financial literacy scale. These findings are therefore the first to provide support to the microfoundations of modern macroeconomic models.
Subjects: 
inflation expectations
surveys
experimental economics
JEL: 
C83
D12
E60
C90
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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