Economic Letter
Brief summaries of SF Fed economic research that explain in reader-friendly terms what our work means for the people we serve.
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Global Supply Chain Pressures and U.S. Inflation
Zheng Liu and Thuy Lan Nguyen
Global supply chain disruptions following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the rapid rise in U.S. inflation over the past two years. Evidence suggests that supply chain pressures pushed up the cost of inputs for goods production and the public’s expectations of higher future prices. These factors accounted for about 60% of the surge in U.S. inflation beginning in early 2021. Supply chain pressures began easing substantially in mid-2022, contributing to the slowdown in inflation.
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How Much Do Labor Costs Drive Inflation?
Adam Hale Shapiro
Tight labor markets have raised concerns about the role of labor costs in persistently high inflation readings. Policymakers are paying particular attention to nonhousing services inflation, which is considered most closely linked to wages. Analysis shows that higher labor costs are passed along to customers in the form of higher nonhousing services prices, however the effect on overall inflation is very small. Labor-cost growth has no meaningful effect on goods or housing services inflation. Overall, labor-cost growth is responsible for only about 0.1 percentage point of recent core PCE inflation.
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The Choice to See
Mary C. Daly
Public service is not a job. It’s a choice to see people clearly and to act on what you see. This is the message of the following commencement speech delivered on May 12 by the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to the Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
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The Rise and Fall of Pandemic Excess Savings
Hamza Abdelrahman and Luiz E. Oliveira
U.S. households built up savings at unprecedented rates following the strong fiscal response and lower consumer spending related to the pandemic. Despite recent rapid drawdowns of those funds, estimates suggest a substantial stock of excess savings remains in the aggregate economy. Since 2020, households across all income levels have held a historically large share of savings in cash or other easily accessible forms. Estimates suggest that those funds could be available to support personal spending at least into the fourth quarter of 2023.
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Small Business Lending and the Paycheck Protection Program
Jack Mueller and Mark M. Spiegel
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the PPP Liquidity Facility were launched early in the pandemic to help many small businesses survive. These programs encouraged banks to lend more extensively to small businesses over the first half of 2020. Since then, however, banks have reduced their exposure to these loans, leaving no significant changes in small business lending associated with participation in these programs over the three-year period from 2020 through 2022. This raises some doubt that emergency lending programs encourage long-term relationships that outlast the programs.
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House Prices Respond Promptly to Monetary Policy Surprises
Denis Gorea, Augustus Kmetz, Oleksiy Kryvtsov, Marianna Kudlyak, and Mitchell Ochse
New evidence based on listings of homes for sale from 2000 to 2019 suggests house prices adjust to monetary policy changes over weeks rather than years, faster than previously thought. Housing list prices fall within two weeks after the Federal Reserve announces an unexpected policy tightening, similar to responses of other financial assets. House prices respond more strongly to unexpected changes in long-term interest rates than to surprises in the short-term federal funds rate. Changes in mortgage rates following Fed announcements are key to explaining this rapid house price reaction.
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Forward-Looking Policy in a Real-Time World
Mary C. Daly
Restoring price stability is a key part of the Fed’s mandate, and it is what the American people expect. Achieving it will take time and a broad view of economic conditions. Policymakers have to respond to an economy that is evolving in real time and prepare for what the economy will look like in the future. The following is adapted from remarks by the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University on March 4.
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Age Discrimination and Age Stereotypes in Job Ads
Ian Burn, Daniel Firoozi, Daniel Ladd, and David Neumark
Studies suggest that employers discriminate against older workers in hiring, responding less favorably to equally qualified job applicants who are older. Employers may also limit hiring of older workers by including age stereotypes in job ads that signal a preference for younger workers. Evidence from an experimental study shows that older workers are less likely to apply to job advertisements that contain language with ageist stereotypes. The results indicate that this impact is comparable to the direct effects of employer age discrimination in hiring decisions.
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The Role of Immigration in U.S. Labor Market Tightness
Evgeniya A. Duzhak
Immigrants contribute a large portion of the growth in the U.S. population and labor force. However, immigration flows into the United States slowed significantly following immigration policy changes from 2017 to 2020 and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of state-level data shows that this migration slowdown tightened local labor markets modestly, raising the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed workers 5.5 percentage points between 2017 and 2021. More recent data show immigration has rebounded strongly, helping to close the shortfall in foreign-born labor and ease tight labor markets.
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Evaluating Monetary Policy with Inflation Bands and Horizons
Troy Davig and Andrew Foerster
Inflation targeting has become the dominant way countries approach setting monetary policy goals. However, central banks differ in how they conduct that policy and how they evaluate their success in meeting a stated inflation goal. A new assessment method combines a percentage range around a target, known as an inflation tolerance band, with central banks stating how long it will take for high or low inflation to return to that range, known as a time horizon. Comparing previously projected horizons with realized horizons can be used to evaluate policy success.