Are Central Banks Still Conservative?

‘Unlike so much of the modern macro literature, which treats central bank independence as a given and central bank inflation targets as inviolable, the papers here highlight the rich undercurrent of political economy issues that real-world central banks have to navigate, and that designers of central bank frameworks need to understand.’ – from the foreword by Kenneth Rogoff‘Central banks are perceived as omnipotent institutions. In the real world, however, they need to be independent to use their limited powers effectively. The book allows readers to see central banks up-close, showing how necessary their independence is to take the right and timely decisions.’ – Andrzej Sławiński, Warsaw School of Economics, Poland‘These chapters are a masterful endeavor showing how theoretical and empirical economic analyses are fundamental elements of public policy. They are also a reminder that the conduct of monetary policy needs to account for political-economy research since the central bankers’ behaviour is always entangled with the career concerns of politicians.’ – Raphaël Franck, University of Stuttgart, Germany‘This fascinating book explains why, how, and to what effect central bank independence, on the one side, and central banker conservativeness, on the other, are nowadays the two sides of the global monetary policy story. The book will not only be of great value to researchers, academics and professionals who are interested in understanding the evolution of monetary policy, but also to university students who are studying monetary economics.’ – Donato Masciandaro, Bocconi University, Italy

Etienne Farvaque is Professor of Economics at the Université de Lille, France.

Piotr Stanek is Associate Professor at the Krakow University of Economics, Poland.