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Should the Individual Voting Records of Central Bankers be Published?

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Author Info
Hahn, Volker
Gersbach, Hans

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Abstract

We examine whether it is socially beneficial for the individual voting records of central bank council members to be published when the general public is unsure about central bankers? efficiency and central bankers are aiming for re-election. We show that publication is initially harmful since somewhat less efficient central bankers attempt to imitate highly efficient central bankers in their bid to get re-elected. After re-election, however, losses will be lower when voting records are published since the government is more easily able to distinguish highly efficient from less efficient central bankers and can make central bankers individually accountable. Nevertheless, the negative effects of voting transparency predominate and expected overall losses are always larger when voting records are published. -- Wir untersuchen, ob die Veröffentlichung über das individuelle Abstimmungsverhalten von Zentralbankratsmitgliedern gesamtwirtschaftlich nützlich ist, wenn in der Öffentlichkeit Unsicherheit über die Effizienz von Mitgliedern des Zentralbankrats besteht und sich diese um eine Wiederwahl bemühen. Wir weisen nach, dass eine Veröffentlichung zunächst Schaden anrichtet, weil etwas weniger effiziente Mitglieder des Zentralbankrats versuchen, hocheffiziente Zentralbankratsmitglieder in ihren Bemühungen um eine Wiederwahl nachzuahmen. Nach der Wiederwahl sind die Verluste aber geringer, wenn die Abstimmung veröffentlicht wird, weil die Regierung hocheffiziente von weniger effizienten Zentralbankratsmitgliedern leichter unterscheiden und sie einzeln zur Rechenschaft ziehen kann. Die negativen Auswirkungen einer Transparenz des Abstimmungsverhaltens überwiegen aber, und die Nachteile sind insgesamt immer größer, wenn die Abstimmung veröffentlicht wird.

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Paper provided by Deutsche Bundesbank, Research Centre in its series Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies with number 2001,02.

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Date of creation: 2001
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Handle: RePEc:zbw:bubdp1:4148

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Ottaviani, Marco & Sorensen, Peter, 2001. "Information aggregation in debate: who should speak first?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 393-421, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Bauke Visser & Otto H Swank, 2007. "On Committees of Experts," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 122(1), pages 337-372, 02. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Hans Gersbach & Volker Hahn, 2004. "Voting Transparency, Conflicting Interests, And The Appointment Of Central Bankers," Economics and Politics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 16, pages 321-345, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Fujiki, Hiroshi, 2005. "The Monetary Policy Committee and the Incentive Problem: A Selective Survey," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 23(S1), pages 37-82, October. [Downloadable!]
  5. Scharfstein, David S & Stein, Jeremy C, 1990. "Herd Behavior and Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 465-79, June.
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  6. Petra M. Geraats, 2002. "Central Bank Transparency," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(483), pages 532-565, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Carlos Montoro, 2007. "Monetary Policy Committees and Interest Rate Smoothing," CEP Discussion Papers dp0780, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jan Marc Berk & Beata K. Bierut, 2005. "On the Optimality of Decisions made by Hub-and-Spokes Monetary Policy Committees," DNB Working Papers 027, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  3. Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi & Daniel Gros, 2001. "Is the ECB Sufficiently Accountable and Transparent?," Economics Working Papers 007, European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes. [Downloadable!]
  4. Ellen Meade, 2006. "Dissent and Disagreement on the Fed's FOMC: Understanding Regional Affiliations and limits to Transparency," DNB Working Papers 094, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  5. Petra Geraats, 2000. "Why Adopt Transparency? The Publication of Central Bank Forecasts," Center for International and Development Economics Research, Working Paper Series 1009, Center for International and Development Economics Research, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Petra Gerlach-Kristen, 2008. "The Role of the Chairman in Setting Monetary Policy: Individualistic vs. Autocratically Collegial MPCs," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 4(3), pages 119-143, September. [Downloadable!]
  7. Carlos Montoro, 2007. "Why Central Banks Smooth Interest Rates? A Political Economy Explanation," Working Papers 2007-003, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú. [Downloadable!]
  8. Gersbach, Hans & Hahn, Volker, 2005. "Voting Transparency in a Monetary Union," CEPR Discussion Papers 5155, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Daniel Seidmann, 2006. "Optimal Quotas in Private Committees," Discussion Papers 2006-10, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham. [Downloadable!]
  10. Mariusz Jarmuzek & Lucjan T. Orlowski & Artur Radziwill, 2005. "Monetary Policy Transparency in the Inflation Targeting," Macroeconomics 0502025, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  11. Ana Lasaosa, . "Learning the rules of the new game? Comparing the reactions in financial markets to announcements before and after the Bank of England's operational independence," Bank of England working papers 255, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
  12. Eijffinger, Sylvester C W & van der Cruijsen, Carin A B, 2007. "The Economic Impact of Central Bank Transparency: A Survey," CEPR Discussion Papers 6070, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Daniel Seidmann, 2006. "A Theory of Voting Patterns and Performance in Private and Public Committees," Discussion Papers 2006-07, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham. [Downloadable!]
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