Households do not simply choose how much macroeconomic information to acquire; they choose among sources that differ in representativeness and credibility. Using a survey of 46,285 consumers in 47 countries, this column shows that reliance on shopping, utility bills, and other local signals is associated with larger macroeconomic perception and expectation errors. Households that use official reports, newspapers, and television for information make smaller errors. Crucially, distrust of governments and central banks helps explain why more representative aggregate information is dismissed.



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