Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
We document a novel empirical phenomenon: the U.S. Federal Reserve appears to set interest rates partly in response to regional economic disparities. This result is robust even after controlling for factors such as the central bank's forecasts and a battery of explanatory variables. We argue that this likely does not reflect an explicit concern about regional differences by policymakers but instead can be explained by a model with nonlinear regional Phillips curves. Consistent with the predictions of this model, we find that the Federal Reserve responds disproportionately to fluctuations in low unemployment states. Alternative explanations cannot account for this finding.