Essays on Survey Expectations

In this thesis, I investigate several topics concerning the collection and application of survey expectations data. Conceptually, the thesis consists of three parts: (i) elicitation of consumer expectations in a probabilistic format, (ii) quantifying uncertainty at the individual level and at different horizons, (iii) application of consumer inflation expectations data collected through surveys to answer topical monetary policy questions. While Chapter 2 critically discusses different ways of eliciting probabilistic inflation expectations of consumers, Chapters 3 and 4 tackle the measurement of subjective uncertainty derived from such histograms. Chapter 5 illustrates how data on inflation expectations of consumers elicited in an information-experimental framework can be used to analyze how consumers would react to a hypothetical monetary policy strategy change in the euro area.