collect timely and high - quality information on consumer expectations and decisions. we were particularly interested in filling in what we viewed as gaps in existing sources of information on household behavior, including data on household finance, labor, and housing market expectations. in addition, we decided that a rotating panel structure, one that tracks the same individuals over time, was necessary for many research and policy applications. having a panel reduces the variability induced by changes in composition month to month and increases the precision of any measured changes in expectations. before we implemented the survey, our proposal was reviewed and approved by the bank ’ s senior management. next, we issued a request for proposals and received three bids from independent survey organizations to field our survey design. in the end, we chose to work with the demand institute, a partnership of the conference board and nielsen. the resulting survey of consumer expectations is a nationally representative monthly internet - based survey. its rotating panel consists of about 1, 200 household heads. we find that the internet approach allows us a great deal of flexibility to ask new questions, and it bis central bankers ’ speeches makes it considerably easier to pose probabilistic questions and to run experiments. it is also – and this is an important consideration – the most cost - effective mode of collection ; at the same time, there is also some evidence of higher response accuracy to personally sensitive questions. our sample is based on the conference board ’ s consumer confidence survey sample, which is drawn from u. s. postal addresses. respondents are compensated with a payment of $ 15 per survey, and surveys vary in length from fifteen to thirty minutes. our firsttime response rate is about 60 percent, and we find that respondents have somewhat greater - than - average education and income. the average response rate among repeat respondents is more than 80 percent. we use weights based on the american community survey to construct summary statistics for our public releases. the survey consists of a core monthly module on expectations about macroeconomic and household - level variables and an additional quarterly module that allows us to address special topics. our core module contains questions about survey respondents ’ expectations for inflation, wage growth, home prices, various commodities, household income and spending, taxes, government debt, credit access, and job search. so far, quarterly modules have included questions on housing and employment, work history, job search, retirement, financial literacy, consumption and savings behavior, student loans, and various field experiments. these quarterly modules are developed by federal reserve staff in collaboration with academic consultants

tool for providing additional monetary easing when overnight interest rates fall to the zero lower bound, it is worth considering some lessons about their use. some personal observations follow. lesson 1 : lsaps had clear benefits at the zero lower bound estimates of the magnitude and persistence of the effects of the fed ’ s purchase programs vary, as do assessments of the relative importance of the possible channels through which such programs are believed to work. however, research largely provides evidence that the fed ’ s asset purchases put downward pressure on longer - term interest rates and eased broader financial conditions, helping to improve macroeconomic outcomes. 21 studies of asset purchase programs conducted by other advanced economy central banks also show positive results. in his survey of the range of research results, joe gagnon finds roughly similar median results for studies focusing on programs in the united states, united kingdom, and euro area — citing a 4 / 13 bis central bankers'speeches median effect of about a 50 - basis - point reduction in 10 - year yields for a purchase equal to 10 percent of gdp. 22 regarding costs, in a recent exploration of strategies for defeating the zero lower bound, former federal reserve chairman bernanke dispels some of the common critiques of balance sheet programs ( which he calls quantitative easing ). 23 he points to unrealized worries about an upsurge in inflation, collapse of the dollar, currency war, and rise in household leverage, and he questions the effects in promoting asset bubbles and inequality. he notes that fiscal risks associated with quantitative easing must be balanced against benefits of tools that enhance policymakers ’ ability to meet their policy objectives in the face of a serious economic downturn or disinflation. lesson 2 : the fed could control interest rates even with a large balance sheet an additional concern — that the fed would not be able to control interest rates with a large balance sheet — proved to be surmountable. as i described earlier, the fed successfully introduced new tools and counterparty relationships into a new operating regime that delivers interest rate control irrespective of the level of reserve balances in the banking system. in the event policymakers contemplate asset purchases again in the future, they should be able to undertake them with confidence that balance sheet expansion will not compromise the fed ’ s ability to effectively implement monetary policy when the time comes to lift rates from the zero lower bound. lesson 3 : the fed could purchase large amounts of securities without damaging the market absent a conflicting policy objective, a central bank should