Appointing Central Bankers
The Politics of Monetary Policy in the United States and the European Monetary Union

This book examines monetary policy by focusing on how the President and the Senate influence monetary policy by appointing Federal Reserve members.

Kelly H. Chang (Author)

9780521823333, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 August 2003

176 pages, 14 b/w illus. 31 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.43 kg

"Appointing Central Bankers makes an important contribution to our understanding of appointment power dynamics and impact on monetary policy in the United States and the European Central Bank. It is a "must read" for students of these institutions and should become an important methodological reference for students of other central banks and other types of regulatory agencies."
Irwin L. Morris, Perspectives on Politics

This book examines monetary policy by focusing on how the President and the Senate influence monetary policy by appointing Federal Reserve members. It attempts to answer three questions about the appointment process and its effects. First, do politicians influence monetary policy through Federal Reserve appointments? Second, who influences the process - the President alone or both the President and the Senate? Third, what explains the structure of the Federal Reserve appointment process? The test models show that the President alone, both the President and Senate, or neither, may influence monetary policy with Federal Reserve appointments. The structure of the process reflects political battles between the Democrats and Republicans regarding the centralization of authority to set monetary policy within the Federal Reserve System. The study extends the analysis to the European Central Bank and shows that the Federal Reserve process is more representative of society than the European Central Bank process.

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. A formal model of the appointment process
3. Estimating monetary policy preferences
4. Empirically testing the model's predictions
5. Appointments to the European Central Bank
6. The origins of the Federal Reserve appointment process
7. Conclusions
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational: Citizenship & social education [YQN], Political economy [KCP], Political science & theory [JPA]