Economic literacy and inflation expectations: evidence from a laboratory experiment

Mary Alyssa Burke () and Michael Manz

No 11-8, Public Policy Discussion Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Abstract: We present new experimental evidence on heterogeneity in the formation of inflation expectations and relate the variation to economic literacy and demographics. The experimental design allows us to investigate two channels through which expectations-formation may vary across individuals: (1) the choice of information and (2) the use of given information. Subjects who are more economically literate perform better along both dimensions—they choose more-relevant information and make better use of given information. Compared with survey data on inflation expectations, fewer demographic factors are associated with variation in inflation expectations, and economic literacy in most cases accounts for demographic variation in expectations.

Keywords: Inflation (Finance); Financial literacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-mac and nep-mon
Date: 2011
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