Journal Article

The Evolution of Central Bank Governance around the World

Meade, Ellen E., Crowe, Christopher

2007

Overview

The past two decades have seen enormous changes in central banks and their practices. In some countries, older institutions have been fundamentally restructured. In other, such as the countries of the former Soviet Union, entirely new central banks have been established. The member countries of the European Union have created a supranational central bank that oversees a monetary union. In all of these situations, central bank law was either revised or written de novo, while institutional objectives, practices, and structures were amended or created from scratch. In this article, we survey and quantify the trends in two major areas of central bank governance: independence and transparency. We document the steady progress toward greater central bank independence and transparency in a large number of industrial and developing countries over the past 10 to 15 years and discuss the effects of these aspects of governance on inflation. Finally, we touch on committee structure and decision making.

• Publisher: American Economic Association
• Subject: Analytical forecasting / Anti-inflation policy / Appointments & personnel changes / Banking law / Central bank independence / Central banks / Decision making / Developing countries / Economic development / Economic impact / Economic inflation / Emerging markets / European Central Bank / European monetary unit / Evolution / Federal Reserve Bank / Governance / Governors / Independence / Inflation / Interest rate policy / International monetary policy / Law / LDCs / Monetary policy / Monetary unions / Objectives / Policy analysis / Policy making / Postcommunist societies / Studies / Symposium: Monetary Policy / Transparency