Economics Seminar - "Partisan Trust in the Federal Reserve"

This paper examines public perceptions of the Federal Reserve. Trust in the central bank depends on political partisanship, and is highest for respondents of the same party as the President. Independents tend to have the lowest trust, though in recent years, members of the opposition party have the lowest trust. Partisan effects are larger than other demographic differences in trust. However, controlling for central bank trust only slightly moderates the partisan gap in inflation expectations. We conduct a new survey-based information experiment before and after the Presidential inauguration in 2025 to study the reasons for partisan differences in trust and the effects of information about central bank independence on trust and expectations.