Topic: What Is Consumer Confidence?

Speaker: Dr. Donghoon Yoo, Associate Professor of Economics, Korea University

Date: April 30th, 2025 (Wednesday) 14:00-15:00

Venue: T1-302-R1

Language: English

Abstract:

This paper offers a structural interpretation of survey measures of consumer confidence. To this end, we consider a simple consumption model with noisy information about fundamentals and estimate a model-based measure of consumer confidence using national accounts. We show that the model-implied measure corresponds well to fluctuations in confidence survey data for the U.S. and a host of European countries. Our analysis provides an informational mechanism to interpret these widely used confidence indices.

Bio of the Speaker:

Dr. Donghoon Yoo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Korea University. He received B.A,. from the University of Utah, M.A. from Université catholique de Louvain, and Ph.D. from Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata.

His research interests include behavioral macroeconomics, information frictions, and business cycles.