• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.37 no.sup
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• pp.33-63
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• 2015

This paper attempts to investigate the Korean households' inflation expectations with particular attention to information rigidity. For this purpose, we derive an empirical model from a sticky information model $\acute{a}$ la Mankiw and Reis (2002) and estimate it. In addition, it is also examined whether the expectation formation is state-dependent on macroeconomic conditions. The main findings of this paper are as follows. First, it turns out that the information rigidity in Korean households' inflation expectations is very high. In a month, most of the households simply keep their inflation expectations the same as before instead of updating them based on newly arrived information. Furthermore, when updating their expectations, the households tend to rely on the backward-looking information such as actual inflation rates in the past rather than on the forward-looking forecasts by experts. Second, it is found that the expectation formation is varying as inflation rate changes. Specifically, when the inflation is high, the sensitivity of the households' inflation expectations to actual inflation increases and the gap between inflation expectations and actual inflation shrinks. It implies that Korean households update their expectations more frequently when the inflation matters than not.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.45-68
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• 2018

We uncover a nexus between actual inflation, inflation perceptions and expectations in Korea through analyzing micro as well as aggregate data from the Consumer Survey. We document two novel findings. First, households' subjective perceptions of inflation exert more impact on expectation formation than actual inflation. Second, inflation perceptions are broadly in line with the trajectory of the inflation trend. This is attributable to the fact that changes in actual inflation have been generated mainly by the consumption items whose price changes are perceived more sensitively as those items are frequently bought or have a larger share in household expenditures. Conducting a cross-country comparison, we find that information rigidity in expectation formation process and the nexus between perceptions and expectations of inflation prove to be stronger in Korea. Additionally, we reconfirm the existing finding that the scope of information utilized for forming inflation expectations is fairly circumscribed.