Articles or comments in peer reviewed journals, per Google Scholar:
- Price beliefs and experience: Do consumers’ beliefs converge to empirical distributions with repeated purchases? , B Matsumoto, F Spence, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 126, 243-254 (2016)
- Family ruptures, stress, and the mental health of the next generation: Comment, B Matsumoto, American economic review 108 (4-5), 1253-1255 (2018)
- Building a consumption poverty measure: Initial results following recommendations of a federal interagency working group, G Armstrong, C Cho, TI Garner, B Matsumoto, J Munoz, J Schild (2018)
- AEA Papers and Proceedings 112, 335-339 (2022)Detecting potential overbilling in Medicare reimbursement via hours worked: comment, B Matsumoto, American Economic Review 110 (12), 3991-4003 (2020)
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A distributional approach to US personal consumption expenditures: an overview
TI Garner, R Martin, B Matsumoto, S Curtin, Business Economics 59 (3), 166-173 (2024)
He also has 2 Chapters in edited books:
- Measuring prices and real household consumption of medical goods: service-based versus disease-based approaches, R Bradley, B Matsumoto, Handbook of US consumer economics, 355-388 (2019)
- Measurement issues, B Matsumoto, A Stockburger, Research Handbook on Inflation, 22-34 (2025)
UNC Ph.D. dissertation here:
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Estimating models of learning in individual decision making with an application to youth smoking, B Matsumoto, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2015)
In addition he has five Monthly Labor Review articles. While that journal is in-house, it is (like typical agency articles) internally reviewed; it is also widely respected and cited.
One can compare this to the previous nominee’s record, as discussed here, here, and here.
His BLS webpage; NYT article on this topic.
Promotion from the ranks. Excellent.
This is a bit like the Warsh nomination. Hassett and Antoni were both shouted down in the Senate, and better qualified candidates were then put forward. More of this, please.
Macroduck: I see the parallel, but I think Warsh is only minimally better than Hassett, insofar as Warsh’s writings don’t make sense to me, and seems pretty malleable.
Yep, but on paper, Warsh is a real central banker. Senators are maki g demands, and getting what they demand.
And, by the way, Krugman agrees with you:
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-bad-heir-day-at-the-fed
Warsh is a political insider’s idea of a cental banker. Not so much a policy insider’s idea of a central banker. Hassett is neither a politician’s nor a policy insider’s idea of a central banker.
“Political insider? More of this please?”
You don’t need to be obtuse about it. Warsh is simply a political hack. He repeatedly called for higher interest rates during the Biden administration and literally a day after the November election he called for lower interest rates.
Trump personally interviewed him and you can be sure that Trump did not follow through with his nomination without assurances that Warsh would do exactly what Trump tells him to do. In fact last night Trump explicitly said that he will sue Warsh if he doesn’t do exactly what Trump tells him to do. And if you’ve learned nothing else by now you should know that is no joke.
Warsh is certainly neither a Cook, nor a Powell. He’s a slippery opportunist. He is a hawk on paper, but the felon-in-chief nominated him over Hassett, which suggest Warsh has sold his soul to the felon. He’ll be a vote for cutting rates.
I think the Senate’s preference for Warsh over Hassett is mostly cosmetic, but also partly self interest; like Bessent, Warsh is beholden to moneyed interests and Senators like that. He’s a poor choice.
That said, I want the Senate to stop rubber-stamping idiot boot-lickers. Twice, and only for economic policy appointees, they have told the felon they won’t confirm his choices. I see that as progress, however little we may like the result.
I also think that Warsh’s experience at the Fed in stressful times could prove decisive. Yes, Warsh drew the wrong conclusions from the housing crash, but I don’t think Hassett has a hope of doing anything useful in a crisis, or a non-crisis. I don’t think Hassett could make a decent cheese sandwich.