Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/227130 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
CFS Working Paper Series No. 645
Publisher: 
Goethe University Frankfurt, Center for Financial Studies (CFS), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
The conventional wisdom that inflation expectations respond to the level of the price of oil (or the price of gasoline) is based on testing the null hypothesis of a zero slope coefficient in a static single-equation regression model fit to aggregate data. Given that the regressor in this model is not stationary, the null distribution of the t-test statistic is nonstandard, invalidating the use of the normal approximation. Once the critical values are adjusted, these regressions provide no support for the conventional wisdom. Using a new structural vector regression model, however, we demonstrate that gasoline price shocks may indeed drive one-year household inflation expectations. The model shows that there have been several such episodes since 1990. In particular, the rise in household inflation expectations between 2009 and 2013 is almost entirely explained by a large increase in gasoline prices. However, on average, gasoline price shocks account for only 39% of the variation in household inflation expectations since 1981.
Subjects: 
inflation
expectations
anchor
missing disinflation
oil price
gasoline price
household survey
JEL: 
E31
E52
Q43
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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