FRBSF Economic Letters are brief summaries of SF Fed economic research that explain in reader-friendly terms what our work means for the people we serve. This section contains Economic Letters on monetary economics and macro-finance topics.
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Assessing a Medium-Run Natural Rate of Interest
Vasco Cúrdia
The natural rate of interest is the inflation-adjusted interest rate consistent with the economy operating at full capacity. Although this rate helps gauge the economy’s health, empirical estimates of it are imprecise and volatile. A medium-run measure that focuses on responsiveness to persistent economic factors while removing short-term volatility may provide more reliable guidance. Analysis…
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Firms’ Inflation Expectations During the Pandemic-Era Surge
Ina Hajdini, Simar Malhotra, Timo Reinelt
Inflation expectations among businesses can affect how they set current prices. Firms’ expectations diverged from those of professional forecasters during the pandemic-era inflation surge and moved closer to household expectations. Analyzing firms’ survey data from 2018 to 2025 reveals three main patterns behind this shift: Businesses became more sensitive to current inflation perceptions, their longer-term…
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Using Inflation Shock Patterns to Help Forecast Inflation
Adam Shapiro, Kevin J. Lansing
A new indicator—the Inflation Shock Momentum Index—can help identify emerging inflationary or disinflationary pressures in real time. The index tracks the shares of consumer spending categories that are experiencing consecutive positive or negative monthly inflation shocks, allowing detection of shifts in the underlying inflation environment. The index improves inflation forecasts at one-year to three-year horizons…
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AI-Powered Algorithmic Pricing and Monetary Policy
Greeshma Avaradi, Zheng Liu, Steven Zhao
The business practice of adjusting prices using algorithms powered by artificial intelligence—known as AI pricing—has grown rapidly and spread across many sectors in the economy. Unlike traditional price setting, AI pricing uses predictive analysis of large data sets to incorporate real-time changes in supply and demand conditions into pricing decisions. This enables businesses to adjust…
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Monetary Policy Through the Lens of Market-Based Inflation
Sylvain Leduc, Luiz Edgard Oliveira
Some goods and services prices are not directly observed and must be indirectly derived for measuring inflation. This nonmarket-based inflation category has been an important factor keeping headline inflation elevated over the past two years. Because indirectly deriving prices introduces measurement uncertainty, one monetary policy approach would be to focus solely on directly observable prices.…
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Fed Communications and Inflation Expectations
Michael Bauer, Wesley Wasserburger
Monetary policy surprises—changes in various interest rates around central bank communication events—reflect new information in monetary policy actions and communications. For the Federal Reserve, surprises around Federal Open Market Committee statements and post-meeting press conferences have, in recent years, often led to meaningful market surprises that capture policy news. Event-study analysis provides new market-based evidence…
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The AI Moment? Possibilities, Productivity, and Policy
Mary C. Daly
AI adoption and use are still evolving, and the technology itself is changing rapidly. What we know about AI and its impact on productivity growth and the economy remains uncertain. Transformations take time. We need to look for early indicators in the data and in business to get monetary policy right. The following is adapted…
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Is the PPPLF Still Encouraging Small Business Lending?
Lora Dufresne, Mark Spiegel
The Federal Reserve designed its Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility to ease liquidity issues and support small business lending during the pandemic. The liquidity facility allowed banks to pledge Paycheck Protection Program loans as risk-free collateral during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis shows that, although the program has essentially ended, the positive effects…