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Identification of Interaction Effects in Survey Expectations: A Cautionary Note

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  • Alfarano, Simone
  • Milakovic, Mishael
Abstract
A growing body of literature reports evidence of social interaction effects in survey expectations. In this note, we argue that evidence in favor of social interaction effects should be treated with caution, or could even be spurious. Utilizing a parsimonious stochastic model of expectation formation and dynamics, we show that the existing sample sizes of survey expectations are about two orders of magnitude too small to reasonably distinguish between noise and interaction effects. Moreover, we argue that the problem is compounded by the fact that highly correlated responses among agents might not be caused by interaction eects at all, but instead by model-consistent beliefs. Ultimately, these results suggest that existing survey data cannot facilitate our understanding of the process of expectations formation.

Suggested Citation

  • Alfarano, Simone & Milakovic, Mishael, 2010. "Identification of Interaction Effects in Survey Expectations: A Cautionary Note," MPRA Paper 26002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:26002
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    Cited by:

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    2. Schmitt, Noemi & Westerhoff, Frank, 2018. "Evolutionary Competition And Profit Taxes: Market Stability Versus Tax Burden," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(8), pages 2007-2031, December.
    3. Juan Gabriel Brida & Bibiana Lanzilotta & Lucía Rosich, 2019. "Common trends in producers’ expectations, the nonlinear linkage with Uruguayan GDP and its implications in economic growth forecasting," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 19-28, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    4. Fatoke Dato, Mafaizath A., 2015. "Impact of income shock on children’s schooling and labor in a West African country," MPRA Paper 64317, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Franke, Reiner & Westerhoff, Frank, 2012. "Structural stochastic volatility in asset pricing dynamics: Estimation and model contest," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1193-1211.
    6. Bibiana Lanzilotta Mernies, 2016. "Taxonomia y Dinamica de las Expectativas Economicas de los Empresarios Industriales en Uruguay. Un Analisis de Conglomerados," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, vol. 17(2), pages 229-256, February.
    7. Bexheti, Abdylmenaf & Mustafi, Besime, 2015. "Impact of public funding of education on economic growth in Macedonia," BERG Working Paper Series 98, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    8. Noemi Schmitt & Frank Westerhoff, 2017. "Herding behaviour and volatility clustering in financial markets," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(8), pages 1187-1203, August.
    9. Seregi, János & Lelovics, Zsuzsanna & Balogh, László, 2012. "The social welfare function of forests in the light of the theory of public goods," BERG Working Paper Series 87, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    10. Dräger, Lena & Proaño, Christian R., 2015. "Cross-border banking and business cycles in asymmetric currency unions," Discussion Papers 21/2015, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    11. Juan G Brida & Bibiana Lanzilotta & Lucia I Rosich, 2021. "On the empirical relations between producers expectations and economic growth," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 1970-1982.
    12. Franke, Reiner & Westerhoff, Frank, 2011. "Why a simple herding model may generate the stylized facts of daily returns: Explanation and estimation," BERG Working Paper Series 83, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    13. Schmitt, Noemi & Tuinstra, Jan & Westerhoff, Frank, 2017. "Side effects of nonlinear profit taxes in an evolutionary market entry model: Abrupt changes, coexisting attractors and hysteresis problems," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 15-38.
    14. Imami, Drini & Lami, Endrit & Kächelein, Holger, 2011. "Political cycles in income from privatization: The case of Albania," BERG Working Paper Series 77, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    15. Fatoke-Dato, Mafaïzath A., 2015. "Impact of an educational demand-and-supply policy on girls' education in West Africa: Heterogeneity in income, school environment and ethnicity," BERG Working Paper Series 101, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    16. Proaño, Christian R. & Lojak, Benjamin, 2015. "Debt stabilization and macroeconomic volatility in monetary unions under heterogeneous sovereign risk perceptions," BERG Working Paper Series 106, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Survey expectations; model-consistent beliefs; social inter- action; networks.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods

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