The wording of survey questions measuring people's inflation expectations are often misinterpreted and prevent respondents from fully expressing uncertainty over future prices, a New York Federal Reserve paper out Thursday said.

The authors of the report - Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Simon Potter, Robert Rich, Giorgio Topa, and Wilbert van der Klaauw - argued that questions asking directly about the "rate of inflation" rather than "prices in general" led to a measure of expected future inflation