Inflation Perceptions Research Articles

Grade inflation: graduate students’ perspective

ABSTRACT Grading inflation is a major problem in academia. The paper’s purpose is to assess graduate students’ perception of grade inflation. Students’ results (n = 120) are examined by gender and grade point average. According to students, grade inflation is not a problem and grades accurately reflect performance. Respondents believe that some students feel entitled to receive a higher grade regardless of effort. Graduate students’ views of grade inflation did not differ based on their gender or grade point average. Further, grade inflation is seen as unethical but not personally relevant. Students, overall, are pragmatic in endorsing grade inflation remedies. They support those in their best interest.

Educators' Perspectives on Grade Inflation, Motivational Grading, And Emotional Responses

Aim. This study investigates the multifaceted nature of grading within the Albanian educational system, aiming to comprehend its complexities and impact on educators. It focuses on grade inflation, motivating grading practices, and educators' emotional responses, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. The research addresses educators' perceptions of grade inflation, strategies for motivating grades, and emotional experiences in assigning end-of-semester grades. Quantitative analyses are utilized to gather comprehensive insights. Data collection includes surveys and interviews with educators across various educational contexts. Results. The findings reveal significant difficulties for educators in assigning partially undeserved grades and providing motivating grades. Despite these difficulties, educators express pride in their grading practices. The study highlights the emotional landscape of grading, particularly the heightened stress during the pandemic. It also assesses educators' perceptions of grade inflation and its impact on the assessment system. Conclusions. Albanian educators face grading challenges, especially with undeserved grades and grade inflation, impacting their emotions. Support, localized strategies, and policy reforms are needed to enhance the educational experience and integrity. Practical application. The insights gained from this study can inform educators, policymakers, and stakeholders, fostering a conducive environment for learning, growth, and equity. The research emphasizes the importance of localized strategies to enhance the grading experience within the Albanian educational system. Cognitive value. This comprehensive approach contributes valuable knowledge to the discourse on educational grading practices in Albania. By exploring nuanced aspects of grading, the study sets the stage for meaningful discussions and interventions, addressing the unique challenges faced by Albanian educators.

Does Inflation Matter? The Influence of Perceived Price Changes on Well-being

We confirm the inflation and well-being correlation scheme while filling the gap in the literature and estimating the effects of inflation perception on wellbeing. We discover the significant heterogeneity in attitudes toward inflation and inflation perception among European countries. While the inflation perception influence on well-being in Eastern Europe is higher than the influence of HICP, for Western Europe, it is the opposite. Both groups differ in terms of the marginal rate of substitution between inflation and unemployment – the effects of higher unemployment are more severe in comparison to the influence of inflation in Western Europe.

The Macroeconomic Expectations of U.S. Managers

AbstractUsing responses obtained through the Nielsen Homescan panel survey, we explore the differences between managers’ and nonmanagers’ expectations and perceptions of inflation and unemployment. By and large, managers and nonmanagers exhibit similar average inflation and unemployment expectations as well as similar levels of disagreement and sensitivity to information provided in a randomized control trial. Responses to hypothetical questions suggest that inflation expectations of managers frequently affect their economic decisions. Finally, the inflation expectations of managers deviate systematically from the predictions of “anchored” expectations.

On the Welfare Costs of Perceptions Biases

AbstractAre households harmed by inaccurate inflation beliefs? This paper analyzes two established inflation perceptions biases and evaluates their welfare effects. Using French survey data I study the frequency bias, where households overweight goods that they purchase frequently, and the level bias, where households consistently overestimate current inflation. To evaluate the associated welfare losses, I incorporate biased inflation perceptions into a model with a nominal bond subject to inflation risk. Only the level bias significantly reduces welfare and asset accumulation. Removing the perception bias reduces the welfare loss, suggesting that inaccurate perceptions can harm households beyond affecting expectations.

Determinants of perceived inflation in Algeria: an empirical study

This study aims to assess the determinants of inflation perception in Algeria. A survey of 32 items was held online on February 2022 where respondents were questioned about their perception for the last twelve months as well as their characteristics and behaviour. Collected data has been analysed using two Probit models. The results revealed that perceived inflation is affected by socio-demographic characteristics, especially age and education degree while knowledge about inflation rate doesn’t have a direct effect on it. Psychological factors also play an important role as price decrease awareness contribute to lower perceived inflation while individuals who doesn’t usually buy goods tend to report lower perceived inflation too. Atypical results have been found for consumer behaviour effect, as a more intensive search on internet translates in higher inflation perception while the use of cash card contributes to lower it. Finally, economic condition also plays an important role, as individuals with a kind of financial distress are more likely to report higher perceived inflation. Thus, perceived inflation in Algeria highly differs from official statistical rates due to many factors specific to each individual.

Inflation Perceptions During the Covid Pandemic and Recovery

Since 2016, the Michigan Surveys of Consumers (MSC) have included questions on inflation perceptions—what people believe inflation to have been—that are worded symmetrically with their long-standing questions on inflation expectations. The questions on inflation perceptions are currently posed four times a year—in February, May, August, and November. Using available data at the time, Axelrod, Lebow, and Peneva (2018) concluded that inflation expectations and perceptions are very similar and that if perceptions were to change, expectations were likely to change as well.

Using the Press to Construct a New Indicator of Inflation Perceptions in France 

Using the Press to Construct a New Indicator of Inflation Perceptions in France 

Perceived inflation in the Vietnamese economy: New points in methodology and applications

Researching and developing methods to measure perceived inflation is an indispensable requirement for the monetary policy management of the State Bank of Vietnam, especially in the context of interest rate amplitudes. remains at the lowest level in history in Vietnam. This study was conducted in that context with the goal of developing a tool to measure perceived inflation based on a solid methodological foundation. The result is the creation of a new measure, integrating the psychological 'gain-loss' effect of consumers on price fluctuations. In particular, the final product is an integrated website, allowing automation of the research and analysis process. The results of the study provide evidence of overstated consumer inflation perceptions during periods of economic volatility, when perceived inflation is significantly higher than the headline inflation (CPI). These findings not only have academic value but are also important in supporting the State Bank of Vietnam in evaluating and operating monetary policy, especially in identifying and dealing with fluctuations in perceived inflation in the economy. From the results of this study, we call for participation and suggestions from the experts, with the aim of minimizing the undesirable effects of inflation and supporting the maintenance of a stable inflation rate, contributing to Vietnam’s economic growth in 2024.

Data-Driven Investigation of Inflation Concerns Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic in the U.S.

While the end of the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in May 2023, it is necessary to analyze data collected by the Household Pulse Survey (HPS) to understand Americans’ perceptions of inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 574,265 samples were analyzed with ANOVA, Tukey’s Multiple Comparison tests, and dominance analysis to explore disparities in expense difficulty across various demographic and socioeconomic groups. Results revealed significant racial disparities, with Black individuals facing the most challenges, followed by mixed-race, White, and Asian respondents. Transgender individuals encountered the highest hurdles among genders. Separated individuals experienced the most financial challenges based on marital status, while renters struggled more than homeowners regarding property status. Geographical variances revealed that the District of Columbia experienced the simplest challenges while Mississippi faced the most difficult ones. Dominance analysis highlighted household income and education levels as pivotal factors and indicated an inverse correlation between total household income and expense difficulty among low-income households. Disparities arose when oil and gas prices decreased, while the difficulty of paying full energy bills did not follow that trend. The most substantial discrepancy was observed between people’s difficulty with expenses and CPI data, which implied questions about the accuracy of CPI in reflecting consumer trends. Future research that considers additional variables would be helpful to gain a more comprehensive understanding of individuals’ perceptions of inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Measuring Household Inflation Perceptions and Expectations: The Effect of Guided vs Non-Guided Inflation Questions

An experiment using a representative survey of the German population shows that letting respondents report a number rather than asking them to choose from a list of predefined ranges lowers the response rate for both perceived past and expected inflation and decreases (increases) reported past (expected) inflation. Income, education, gender, objective and subjective knowledge about monetary policy, and political affiliation affect the effect's size but not its sign. East and West German respondents who were 15 or older when the Berlin Wall fell have reactions different from those who were younger at that time, which supports the ‘impressionable years’ hypothesis based on different inflation experiences.

Dynamic modelling of price expectations and judgments

Official data about consumers’ qualitative expectation and perception of inflation are derived from repeated surveys conducted by national statistical institutes. In EU, these data are published in aggregate form, and cannot be described by means of classical methods based on cumulative models for ordinal data. This article illustrates an integrated approach that locates CUB mixture models for ratings in a time series perspective in order to investigate the joint evolution of inflation judgments and expectations in Italy. In order to measure the common sentiment of interviewees through the feeling component of the model, net of possible uncertainty and nuisance effects, its estimation is pursued through profile likelihood methods given the empirical frequency distributions of consumers’ opinions observed over time. Then, the relationship between the time series of the estimated feeling parameters is modelled using a dynamic regression model and the results are compared in three periods marked by different economic conditions. Results indicate that each series has a substantial inertial component, and thus it is characterized by a slow variation over time, and that both judgments about past price levels and previous expectations affect current expectations about the future in fairly different ways for the three time periods.

Perceived and Expected Rates of Inflation of US Firms

The seminal work of Jonung (1981) showed that households' perceptions of inflation are the strongest predictor of households' inflation expectations. This fact has been a key ingredient for testing and developing theoretical models of how economic agents form expectations (e.g., the famous Lucas (1972) island model). However, little is known about whether perceptions play a similar role for firms. Using a new survey of American CEOs, we document that inflation perceptions shape the inflation expectations of firms just as Jonung (1981) found for households. These results suggest that information rigidities apply not only for households but also for CEOs.

Not Me, Not Here: Adjunct Faculty Perceptions of Grade Inflation at U.S. Colleges and Universities

This study examines adjunct faculty perceptions of grade inflation. The research used a qualitative phenomenological study methodology. Twenty-three respondents participated in the research after being recruited using Facebook groups and were interviewed by phone in semi-structured interviews. The data gathered indicated variation regarding awareness and perception of grade inflation in their classes and at their institution. Also, participants did not believe they were participants in grade inflation or that their institutions were contributors to the problem, even though none of them had received training specifically geared to preventing grade inflation. Findings suggest institutions should look for ways to support adjunct faculty given they are the new majority in regards to instructors in higher education.

Inflation, Informational Environment and Expectations of Households

The background information that forms the expectations of economic entities is a significant factor that determines their behavior.The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the relationship of inflation, perception and expectation of inflation by households with the parameters of the information (news’) background on the example of the Russian Federation.The materials for processing as a Russian information background were news’ reports issued by leading Russian TV channels and duplicated on the relevant sites, as well as Internet search (the number of news and search queries, the length of the headlines of the text versions of news, the frequency of mentioning certain topics in them, the tonality of texts), GoogleTrends data on internetrequests. The tonality of the texts was evaluated using automatic analyzers EurikaEngine and Repustate. Data from the reports of the Public Opinion Fund for the Central Bank of the Russian Federation posted on its website are also used; these reports contain monthly data on actual inflation (consumer price index) for 12 months and the results of respondents’ surveys on the perception of inflation, inflation expectations, consumer sentiment, assessments of economic and personal prospects, changes in behavior (starting a job search, making large purchases, etc.) and a wide range of other characteristics of public sentiment related to inflation. To process the collected data, correlation and regression analysis was used, as well as specific methods: Granger causality, principal component methods and lasso regression. As a result of the analysis, statistically significant correlations are found, which may be associated with individual reactions to the topics covered, expressed in changes in mood and behavior.Thus, inflation is negatively correlated with the number of political news on the “Russia” channel and with the length of headlines of text versions of political news of the “Pervy” channel, and positively correlated with web-search queries on the topic “Inflation”. Including these variables in a regression that estimates inflation based on lagged values significantly improves the quality of the regression, although their impact is small in terms of absolute values. We analyze how these relations change after the shift in the exchange rate regime and the introduction of inflation targeting. We find that in the period preceding to the shift, web-search demonstrated statistical significance in the equations we evaluate, and political news did not, while in the subsequent period, the opposite was true. We observe a connection between the parameters under consideration with certain aspects of individual behavior, such as the search for a better-paid job, or doing business. Finally, we find imperfections in the information activity of the Central Bank: an increase in the frequency of its mention in the news reduces people’s confidence that the inflation target can be achieved.In conclusion, the authors come to the following fundamental conclusions: the parameters of the information environment may be suitable for operational estimates of inflation, the effect of inflation targeting (i.e. greater controllability of inflationary processes by Central Bank) increases the importance of political news in decisions made by individuals, information policy and the overall image of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation requires improvement.

Perceptions and factors influencing the willingness to pay for micro cyber-risk insurance: A logistic regression approach

This study aims at (re)focusing research attention on the improvement of welfare, achieving sustainable micro cyber-risk management, and the reduction of persistent insurance exclusion among retail e-payment agents (REAs) or branchless banking agents operating globally and in Lagos slums. With the active collaboration of REAs and micro-insurers, we designed and introduced the first hypothetical POS-related micro cyber-risk insurance (PRMCRI) to sustainably manage identified cyber-risks of REAs. Using a contingent valuation survey and logistic regression, this study also investigates REAs’ perceptions and factors having statistically significant effects on their willingness to pay (WTP) for PRMCRI. Our findings revealed that WTP for PRMCRI is only slightly sensitive to premium price. REAs’ perceptions of inflation, interest rates, deployment/administration of PRMCRI on mobile-technology platforms, and the effectiveness of regulatory consumer protection all positively affected their WTP for PRMCRI. Age, marital status, education, religion, and gender had no statistically significant effect on the WTP for PRMCRI. The practical value and actionable implication of the PRMCRI were further evinced, as 65.93 percent of the 455 surveyed REAs affirmed their WTP for the product. Ultimately, we hope that the introduced PRMCRI and its associated empirical/policy dynamics will champion a novel and seminal path for global micro cyber-insurance markets, future studies, and policies.

Theological Dimension of Price and Inflation

The theological dimension of price and inflation refers to a religious or theological investigation of the concept of price inflation. While economics is primarily concerned with the study of inflation as a persistent increase in an economy’s general price level of goods and services over time, certain religious scholars and thinkers have investigated its potential ramifications and linkages to theological conceptions. Some religious traditions place a premium on resource management and ethical behavior in economic affairs. Inflation can be viewed as a challenge to this ideal since it can cause the value of money to erode and cause economic hardship for disadvantaged populations. Therefore, the aim of the article is to present systematized and structured knowledge on the perception of prices and inflation in theological sciences, with particular emphasis on Christianity as the dominant religion in the world.

Students’ Perceptions of Grades and Grade Inflation in Counselor Training

Students’ Perceptions of Grades and Grade Inflation in Counselor Training

Measuring Household Inflation Perceptions and Expectations: The Effect of Guided vs Non-Guided Inflation Questions

Measuring Household Inflation Perceptions and Expectations: The Effect of Guided vs Non-Guided Inflation Questions

The Pass-Through from Inflation Perceptions to Inflation Expectations

The Pass-Through from Inflation Perceptions to Inflation Expectations