Papers & Opinions


Paper


Posted on 20 April 2023

In the last three decades, legal delegation of monetary policy to independent central banks (CBI) has achieved the status of a global norm of good governance. The recent backlash against this...

Paper


Posted on 9 February 2023

Because of secrecy, little is known about the political economy of central bank lending. Utilizing a novel, hand-collected historical daily dataset on loans to commercial banks, we analyze how personal...

Paper


Posted on 25 January 2023

Since the 1980s many countries have reformed the institutional framework governing their central banks to increase operational independence. Collecting systematic biographical information, international press coverage, and independent expert opinions, we...

Paper


Posted on 25 May 2022

We investigate the link between ideology and the sentiments of parliamentarians when they speak to the central bank they hold accountable. To this end, we collect textual data on the...

Paper


Posted on 30 April 2022

The ability to finance conflict likely affects the odds of sustaining a war and succeeding in it. Recent literature explores rebel group funding, but far less is known about how...

Paper


Posted on 10 October 2021

This paper investigates whether parliamentary hearings are effective in holding central banks accountable against their mandates. To this end, it applies text analysis on the hearings of the Bank of...

Paper


Posted on 27 September 2021

We analyze the partisanship of Securities and Exchange Commissioners (SEC) and members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Fed). Using the language-based approach of Gentzkow, Shapiro, and Taddy (Econometrica,...

Paper


Posted on 25 September 2021

What explains the worldwide changes in central bank design over the past five decades? Using a new dataset on central bank institutional design, this paper investigates the timing, pace and...

Paper


Posted on 30 August 2021

Previous scholarship on central bank accountability has generally focused on monetary authorities' deeds and words while largely ignoring the other side of the accountability relationship, namely politicians' voice on monetary...

Paper


Posted on 11 August 2021

We analyze the introduction of retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) into a two-tiered monetary system. Deposits, reserves, and CBDC differ in terms of operating costs and liquidity. We identify the optimal...

Opinion


Posted on 6 July 2021

This post reports on recent work presented at the first edition of the CEPR Conference Series on the Political Economy of Finance, which focused on the politics of regulation and...

Paper


Posted on 3 July 2021

We compare the findings of central bank researchers and academic economists regarding the macroeconomic effects of quantitative easing (QE). We find that central bank papers find QE to be more...

Paper


Posted on 2 July 2021

In the paper "The Real Effects of Bank Runs. Evidence from the French Great Depression (1930-1931)" we study how competition between regulated and unregulated institutions can trigger financial instability and...

Paper


Posted on 1 July 2021

We document that central banks are significantly more likely to report slightly positive profits than slightly negative profits, especially amid greater political pressure, the public’s receptiveness to more extreme political...

Paper


Posted on 21 May 2021

We analyze the political economy causes and consequences of a monetary unification among countries with different institutional quality. Before a common currency countries with stronger institutions have more efficient public...