Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review | 2010
Authors:
DOI: 10.20955/r.92.129-154
Journal: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review
Year: 2010
Publisher: Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis
Document Type: Article
Open Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access
Cited by: 5
The increasingly rapid productivity growth that began in the 1990s was the defining economic event of the decade and a major topic of debate among Federal Reserve policymakers. A key aspect of the debate was the contrast between information contained in aggregate data, which initially suggested little productivity gain, and anecdotal firm-level evidence, which hinted at the productivity acceleration. The authors revisit this debate from the actual FOMC transcripts. Their study illustrates the process by which policymakers filter incoming data to identify changes in underlying fundamental trends. (JEL E52, E58) © 2010, The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.