Search Results
Working Paper
Attention-Dependent Monetary Transmission to Household Beliefs
When do households listen to the Fed? We show the answer lies in a simple but powerful force: household attention to macroeconomic conditions. We develop a model where attention acts as a crucial gatekeeper for the pass-through of policy news to beliefs, and confirm its predictions using household survey data. We find that belief revisions to monetary policy surprises are concentrated among attentive individuals—particularly those with high financial stakes—and this effect strengthens dramatically during uncertain times. This implies the expectations channel is most potent when it matters ...
Working Paper
Attention-Dependent Monetary Transmission to Household Beliefs
The expectations channel of monetary policy is state dependent because households endogenously adjust attention to macroeconomic conditions. We develop a behavioral framework in which attention trades off forecast accuracy against cognitive cost, so monetary policy operates through an expectations multiplier. Using the Michigan Survey, we proxy attentiveness from whether households’ reading of business conditions matches realized outcomes, measured before identified policy shocks arrive. Policy news moves inflation beliefs primarily among attentive households, especially those with greater ...