Christopher.Cotton@bos.frb.org
Biography
Christopher Cotton is a senior economist in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department. He joined the Boston Fed in 2019 after earning his PhD in economics from Columbia University. His fields of specialization are macroeconomics and monetary economics. He has looked at questions including the impact of changing the inflation target, why the Phillips curve has flattened, and the degree to which monetary policy changes can cause spillovers.
Cotton obtained a BSc in economics from the London School of Economics and a master’s in economics from the Toulouse School of Economics. He was a dissertation fellow at the Federal Reserve Board in 2018.
Work Experience
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Senior Economist, 2025–
Economist, 2019–2025
Education
PhD, Economics, Columbia University, 2019
MA, Economics, Toulouse School of Economics, 2013
BSc, Economics, London School of Economics, 2011
Primary fields of research
Macroeconomics, monetary economics
Publications
Journal articles
“Debt, Deficits, and Interest Rates.” 2024. Economica 91(363): 911–943. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12521
“Excess Stimulus and Monetary Policy.” 2023. Economic Bulletin 43(3): 1528–1538.
“Consumption Spending and Inequality during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” with Vaishali Garga and Justin Rohan. 2021. COVID Economics: Vetted and Real-time Papers 83 (July): 116–153.
Working papers
“The Pass-through of Gaps between Market Rent and the Price of Shelter.” 2024. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Working Papers No. 24-6. https://doi.org/10.29412/res.wp.2024.06
“A Faster Convergence of Shelter Prices and Market Rent: Implications for Inflation.” 2024. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Current Policy Perspectives 24-4.
“The Distribution of Sectoral Price Changes and Recent Inflation Developments,” with Vaishali Garga, Giovanni P. Olivei, and Viacheslav Sheremirov. 2023. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Current Policy Perspectives, August 30, 2023.
“What Is Driving Inflation—Besides the Usual Culprits?” with Vaishali Garga. 2023. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Current Policy Perspectives. July 13, 2023.
“To What Degree and through Which Channel Do Central Banks Other Than the Federal Reserve Cause Spillovers?” 2023. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Working Papers No. 23-3. https://doi.org/10.29412/res.wp.2023.03
“Forecasting CPI Shelter under Falling Market-Rent Growth,” with John O’Shea. 2023. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Current Policy Perspectives. February 14, 2023.
“Monetary Policy and Stock Prices.” 2022. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Current Policy Perspectives. December 23, 2022.
“Looking Beyond the Fed: Do Central Banks Cause Information Effects?” 2022. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Working Papers No. 22-21. https://doi.org/10.29412/res.wp.2022.21
“The Role of Industrial Composition in Driving the Frequency of Price Change,” with Vaishali Garga. 2022. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Working Papers No. 22-9. https://doi.org/10.29412/res.wp.2022.09
“Impact of Occupational Unemployment Risk on Household Spending,” with Vaishali Garga and Justin Rohan. 2022. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Working Papers No. 22-7. https://doi.org/10.29412/res.wp.2022.07
“Debt, Deficits, and Interest Rates.” 2021. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Current Policy Perspectives. December 23, 2021.
“Consumption Spending during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” with Vaishali Garga and Justin Rohan. 2021. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Current Policy Perspectives. December 3, 2021.
“Consumption Heterogeneity by Occupation: Understanding the Impact of Occupation on Personal Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” with Vaishali Garga and Justin Rohan. 2020. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Working Papers No. 20-16. https://doi.org/10.29412/res.wp.2020.16
“The Inflation Target and the Equilibrium Real Rate.” 2020. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Working Papers No. 20-2.