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Women and Governance: Central Bank Boards and Monetary Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Donato Masciandaro

    (Department of Economics, Bocconi University)

  • Paola Profeta

    (Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University)

  • Davide Romelli

    (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin)

Abstract

Women and Governance: Monetary policy decisions taken by central banks affect the economy, society and politics worldwide. Does the presence of women matter in these decisions? We construct a new and unique dataset on the presence of women on central bank monetary policy committees for a large sample of countries, over the period 2001-2017 and document an increasing share of women on central bank boards. We investigate how the presence of women correlates with the conduct of monetary policy by estimating Taylor rules augmented to include the share of women on monetary policy committees. We show that central bank boards with a higher proportion of women are more responsive to inflation. This suggests that central banks whose boards are characterised by a higher presence of women are associated with a more conservative approach to monetary policy when inflation is higher. We confirm this result by analysing the voting behaviour of members of the executive board of the Swedish Central Bank during the period 2000-2017.

Suggested Citation

  • Donato Masciandaro & Paola Profeta & Davide Romelli, 2023. "Women and Governance: Central Bank Boards and Monetary Policy," Trinity Economics Papers tep1123, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep1123
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    governance; genderdiversity; centralbanks; monetarypolicy.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K23 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Regulated Industries and Administrative Law
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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