Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This paper uses the Special Survey of Italian Households conducted by the Bank of Italy to provide novel insights into Italian consumers’ awareness of the ECB’s price stability objective and its numerical inflation aim. We show that most households believe that the ECB is primarily oriented towards an ‘economic growth’ target, rather than a ‘price stability’ one. Moreover, when asked about the inflation rate that best represents the ECB’s target, the distribution of their responses is widespread, with no particular concentration around values close to 2%. These results suggest that there is ample room for the Eurosystem to improve its efforts to inform the public about its objectives and tools.