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Do You Know that I Know that You Know…? Higher-Order Beliefs in Survey Data

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  • Coibion, Olivier
  • Gorodnichenko, Yuriy
  • Kumar, Saten
  • Ryngaert, Jane

Abstract

We implement a new survey of firms, focusing on their higher-order macroeconomic expectations. The survey provides a novel set of stylized facts regarding the relationship between first-order and higher-order expectations of economic agents, including how they adjust their beliefs in response to a variety of information treatments. We show how these facts can be used to calibrate key parameters of noisy-information models with infinite regress as well as to test predictions made by this class of models. We also consider a range of extensions to the basic noisy-information model that can potentially better reconcile theory and empirics. Although some extensions like level-k thinking are unsuccessful, incorporating heterogeneous long-run priors can address the empirical shortcomings of the basic noisy-information model.

Suggested Citation

  • Coibion, Olivier & Gorodnichenko, Yuriy & Kumar, Saten & Ryngaert, Jane, 2021. "Do You Know that I Know that You Know…? Higher-Order Beliefs in Survey Data," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt5cd1r3bd, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:econwp:qt5cd1r3bd
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2022. "Firms' Knightian Uncertainty during the COVID-19 Crisis," Discussion papers 22089, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    2. Link, Sebastian & Peichl, Andreas & Roth, Christopher & Wohlfart, Johannes, 2023. "Information frictions among firms and households," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 99-115.
    3. Blesse, Sebastian, 2023. "Do your tax problems make tax evasion seem more justifiable? Evidence from a survey experiment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Cornand, Camille & Hubert, Paul, 2022. "Information frictions across various types of inflation expectations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    5. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2022. "Uncertainty of Firms' Medium-term Outlook during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Discussion papers 22079, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    6. Blesse, Sebastian, 2021. "Are your tax problems an opportunity not to pay taxes? Evidence from a randomized survey experiment," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-040, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Pignataro, Giuseppe & Raggi, Davide & Pancotto, Francesca, 2024. "On the role of fundamentals, private signals, and beauty contests to predict exchange rates," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 687-705.
    8. Boumans, Dorine & Gründler, Klaus & Potrafke, Niklas & Ruthardt, Fabian, 2024. "Political leaders and macroeconomic expectations: Evidence from a global survey experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    9. Gorodnichenko, Yuriy & Yin, Xiao, 2024. "Higher-Order Beliefs and Risky Asset Holdings," IZA Discussion Papers 17120, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Sarantis Tsiaplias, 2024. "Inflation as a 'bad', heuristics and aggregate shocks: New evidence on expectation formation," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2024n03, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    11. Weber, Michael & Candia, Bernardo & Ropele, Tiziano & Lluberas, Rodrigo & Frache, Serafin & Meyer, Brent & Kumar, Saten & Gorodnichenko, Yuriy & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Coibion, Olivier & Kenny, Geoff, 2023. "Tell Me Something I don't Already Know: Learning in Low and High-inflation Settings," CEPR Discussion Papers 18299, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Candia, Bernardo & Coibion, Olivier & Gorodnichenko, Yuriy, 2024. "The inflation expectations of U.S. firms: Evidence from a new survey," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(S).
    13. Evans, George & Gibbs, Christopher & McGough, Bruce, 2021. "A Unified Model of Learning to Forecast," Working Papers 2021-10, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    14. Goldstein, Nathan & Zilberfarb, Ben-Zion, 2021. "Do forecasters really care about consensus?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    15. Drautzburg, Thorsten & Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Guerron, Pablo & Oosthuizen, Dick, 2024. "Filtering with Limited Information," CEPR Discussion Papers 19270, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Dobrew, Michael & Gerke, Rafael & Giesen, Sebastian & Röttger, Joost, 2023. "Make-Up Strategies with Incomplete Markets and Bounded Rationality," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277697, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Saten Kumar & Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Olivier Coibion, 2023. "The Effect of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Firm Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(4), pages 1297-1332, July.
    18. Yang, Choongryul, 2022. "Rational inattention, menu costs, and multi-product firms: Micro evidence and aggregate implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 105-123.
    19. Ayan Bhattacharya, 2022. "Arbitrage from a Bayesian's Perspective," Papers 2211.03244, arXiv.org.
    20. Andreas Dibiasi & Heiner Mikosch & Samad Sarferaz, 2021. "Uncertainty Shocks, Adjustment Costs and Firm Beliefs: Evidence From a Representative Survey," KOF Working papers 21-496, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    21. Ingar Haaland & Ole-Andreas Elvik Næss & Ingar K. Haaland, 2023. "Misperceived Returns to Active Investing," CESifo Working Paper Series 10257, CESifo.
    22. Hassan Afrouzi & Joel P. Flynn & Choongryul Yang, 2024. "What Can Measured Beliefs Tell Us About Monetary Non-Neutrality?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2024-053, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    23. Kieren, Pascal & König-Kersting, Christian & Schmidt, Robert J. & Trautmann, Stefan T. & Theurich, Franziska, 2024. "First-order and higher-order inflation expectations: Evidence about households and firms," Discussion Papers 18/2024, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    24. Wu, Jieran, 2022. "Comments on “Sentiments and real business cycles”," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    25. Zhang, Chu & Zhao, Shen, 2023. "The macroeconomic announcement premium and information environment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 55-73.

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