Political pressure, rhetoric and monetary policy : lessons for the European Central Bank / Philipp Maier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maier, Philipp, 1971-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Banks and banking, Central.

Banks and banking, Central--Political aspects.

Banks and banking, Central--European Union countries.

European Union countries.

Monetary policy--European Union countries.

Monetary policy.

Physical Description:

xii, 228 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA, USA : E. Elgar Pub., [2002]

Contents:

1.1 Why were central banks made independent? 1

1.2 Measures of central bank independence 2

1.3 Purpose of the study 5

1.4 Outline of the study 6

2. Review of the Literature 9

2.1 Means of influencing central banks 9

2.2 The models 10

2.3 Measures of monetary policy 15

2.4 Direct political influence on the Deutsche Bundesbank 20

2.5 Indirect influence on the Deutsche Bundesbank 26

2.6 Interpretation of the empirical studies 29

3. Political Pressure in OECD Countries Before Elections 33

3.2 When do political business cycles occur? 34

3.3 Empirical evidence 39

4. The Rhetoric of Central Banks 47

4.2 Monetary policy indices as indicators for a central bank's rhetoric 47

4.3 The basic model 52

4.4 Rhetoric of the Bundesbank 55

4.5 Rhetoric of the Bank of Japan 68

4.6 Rhetoric of the US Federal Reserve 70

5. A New Indicator for (Political) Pressure 75

5.2 Potential sources of external pressure on monetary policy 76

5.3 The Havrilesky approach 78

5.4 Properties of the new 'Pressure Indicator' 80

5.5 Comparison of different indicators for 'Pressure' and 'Conflicts' 85

5.6 Estimation procedure 87

5.7 Empirical evidence 89

6. The Role of Public Support 97

6.2 Methodology 98

6.3 Traditional Macroeconomic model 99

6.4 Traditional Public Choice model 101

6.5 The 'Extended' Public Choice model 103

7. The European Context: An Economic Analysis 113

7.2 The role of the single monetary policy in a monetary union 114

7.3 Economic reasons for inflation differentials 116

7.4 Analysing inflation dispersion in EMU 121

7.5 Simulating national inflation rates in the euro area 126

8. The European Context: A Political Assessment 139

8.2 The structure of the European Central Bank and the Eurosystem 140

8.3 The legal status of the European Central Bank 140

8.4 Political pressure on the ECB 142

8.5 Public support for the ECB 149

9. The Impact of EMU Enlargement 153

9.2 Economic consequences of EMU enlargement 154

9.3 Political consequences from EMU enlargement 168

9.4 Institutional consequences of EMU enlargement 173

10.2 Main findings 180

A. Germany's Institutional Setting 193

A.1 Germany's political system 193

A.2 The structure of the Deutsche Bundesbank 195

A.3 Aims and instruments of the Deutsche Bundesbank 196

B. The refined 'corridor' for the standard deviation 199

C. Data sources 201

C.1 Interest Rates as Indicators for Monetary Policy 201

C.2 Monetary Policy Indices as Indicators for Monetary Policy 201

C.3 The Newspaper Indicators for 'Pressure' and 'Support' 202

C.4 The European Context: An Economic Analysis 204

C.5 The Impact of EMU Enlargement 204.

Notes:

Includes bibilographical references (p. 203-220) and indexes.

ISBN:

1843761572

OCLC:

49926268