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Working Paper
Who's Most Exposed to International Shocks? Estimating Differences in Import Price Sensitivity across U.S. Demographic Groups
Differences in consumption patterns across demographic groups mean that international price shocks differentially affect such groups. We construct import price indexes for U.S. consumer groups that vary by age, race, sex, education, and urban status. Black consumers and college graduates experienced significantly higher import price inflation from 1996-2018 compared to other groups, such as high school dropouts, rural consumers, and consumers over 60. Sensitivity to international price shocks varies widely, implying movements in exchange rates and foreign prices, both during our sample and ...
Discussion Paper
What's Driving the Recent Slump in U.S. Imports?
In this post, we explore what has been driving the recent slump in U.S. imports of non-oil goods.
Discussion Paper
What’s Driving the Recent Slump in U.S. imports?
The growth in U.S. imports of goods has been stubbornly low since the second quarter of 2015, with an average annual growth rate of 0.7 percent. Growth has been even weaker for non-oil imports, which have increased at an average annual rate of only 0.1 percent. This is in sharp contrast to the pattern in the five quarters preceding the second quarter of 2015, when real non-oil imports were growing at an annualized rate of 8 percent per quarter. The timing of the weakness in import growth is particularly puzzling in light of the strong U.S. dollar, which appreciated 12 percent in 2015, ...
Discussion Paper
Distributional Consequences of Trade for U.S. Consumers: Estimating Group-Specific Import Price Inflation
This note highlights the results of our project constructing import price indexes across different U.S. income deciles over the years 1998 to 2014.
Discussion Paper
Which states are most exposed to tariff increases? A new measure based on the consumption channel
This note examines the heterogeneous exposure of states in terms of their consumption of direct consumer goods imports, which is an important channel through which states are exposed to increases in trade costs such as tariffs. Building on the methodology that Hottman and Monarch (2020) and Hottman and Monarch (2026) used to construct a similar measure for U.S. income deciles and other demographic groups, we construct a new state-level measure using a recent year of data.
Discussion Paper
Revisiting the Forecasting Potential of Futures Prices
Amid the largest global oil supply shock in history, oil futures prices moved up much less than many expected. The steep backwardation in oil futures from the Strait of Hormuz's closure sparked a spirited debate over whether futures prices were too sanguine about the risks of prolonged disruption. For institutions, including central banks, that use futures as a guide for market expectations of future commodity prices, understanding the performance of futures in forecasting is essential (Bernanke 2008, Baumeister 2023).