Public attitudes about inflation: a comparative analysis

This article examines public opinion in advanced economies to assess what the general public thinks about inflation. Are individual citizens concerned about inflation? How important a public policy issue do they think it is? What influences their opinions about inflation? Does opinion about inflation vary across countries and, if so, what accounts for this variation? The opinion surveys examined in this article suggest that the public is generally inflation averse, but that there is significant variation across different countries. Evidence is presented that average inflation aversion is sensitive to factors affecting the expected costs of inflation for individual countries at particular times.