How Transparent Are Central Banks?∗ Sylvester C.W. Eijffinger†and Petra M. Geraats‡ March 2003 Abstract Central bank transparency has become the topic of a lively public and aca- demic debate on monetary policy. Unfortunately, it has been complicated by the fact that transparency is a qualitative concept that is hard to measure. This paper proposes a comprehensive index for central bank transparency that comprises the political, economic, procedural, policy and operational aspects of central banking. The index is compiled for nine major central banks. It is based on an analysis of information disclosure practices and re- veals a rich variety in the degree of central bank transparency. There is also some evidence that the kind of transparency matters for economic perfor- mance and interest rate behavior. Keywords: central bank transparency, monetary policy JEL classification: E52, E58 ∗We acknowledge the excellent research assistance by Annemieke Coldeweijer, Javier Coromi- nas, Carin van der Cruijsen and Tessa Sprokkel. The authors would also like to thank seminar participants at the European Central Bank, the European University Institute, De Nederlandsche Bank, the Riksbank and the MMF conference “Monetary Policy Transparency”, and, in particular, Mike Artis and Maria Demertzis for their detailed comments. yCentER for Economic Research, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands, and CEPR. Email: S.C.W.Eijffi
[email protected] zFaculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DD, United Kingdom. Email:
[email protected]. 1 Introduction Central bank transparency has become the topic of a lively public and academic debate on monetary policy.