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Any Link Between Legal Central Bank Independence and Inflation? Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

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Author Info
Luis Ignacio Jácome
Francisco F. Vázquez

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Abstract

This paper reviews central bank legislation in 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 1990s. Using panel regressions, we find a negative relationship between legal central bank independence (CBI) and inflation. This result holds for three alternative measures of CBI and after controlling for international inflation, banking crises, and exchange regimes. The result is also robust to the inclusion of a broader indicator of structural reforms that usually go along with changes in central bank legislation, illustrating the complementary nature of various aspects of economic reform. The paper fails, however, to find a causal relationship running from CBI to inflation.

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Paper provided by International Monetary Fund in its series IMF Working Papers with number 05/75.

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Length: 41 pages
Date of creation: 21 Apr 2005
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Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:05/75

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Keywords: Central bank legislation ; Latin America ; Caribbean ; Central bank role ; Inflation ; Structural adjustment ;

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Eijffinger, Sylvester & Schaling, Eric & Hoeberichts, Marco, 1998. "Central bank independence: A sensitivity analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 73-88, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Loungani, Prakash & Sheets, Nathan, 1997. "Central Bank Independence, Inflation, and Growth in Transition Economies," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(3), pages 381-99, August.
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  6. Marta Campillo & Jeffrey A. Miron, 1996. "Why Does Inflation Differ Across Countries?," NBER Working Papers 5540, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Brumm, Harold J, 2000. "Inflation and Central Bank Independence: Conventional Wisdom Redux," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(4), pages 807-19, November.
  8. Stanley Fischer, 1993. "The Role of Macroeconomic Factors in Growth," NBER Working Papers 4565, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Cukierman, Alex & Miller, Geoffrey P. & Neyapti, Bilin, 2002. "Central bank reform, liberalization and inflation in transition economies--an international perspective," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 237-264, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Luis Catão & Marco Terrones, 2003. "Fiscal Deficits and Inflation," IMF Working Papers 03/65, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Berger, Helge & Haan, Jakob de & Eijffinger, Sylvester C.W, 2000. "Central Bank Independence: An Update of Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Hausman, Jerry A, 1978. "Specification Tests in Econometrics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(6), pages 1251-71, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Alesina, Alberto & Summers, Lawrence H, 1993. "Central Bank Independence and Macroeconomic Performance: Some Comparative Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(2), pages 151-62, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. David M. Drukker, 2003. "Testing for serial correlation in linear panel-data models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(2), pages 168-177, June. [Downloadable!]
  15. Charles Enoch, 1997. "Transparency and Ambiguity in Central Bank Safety Net Operations," IMF Working Papers 97/138, International Monetary Fund.
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  20. Haan, Jakob de & Kooi, Willem J., 2000. "Does central bank independence really matter?: New evidence for developing countries using a new indicator," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 643-664, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Swamy, P A V B & Arora, S S, 1972. "The Exact Finite Sample Properties of the Estimators of Coefficients in the Error Components Regression Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 40(2), pages 261-75, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. de Jong, Eelke, 2002. "Why are price stability and statutory independence of central banks negatively correlated? The role of culture," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 675-694, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. De Gregorio, Jose, 1992. "The effects of inflation on economic growth : Lessons from Latin America," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(2-3), pages 417-425, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Christopher W. Crowe & Ellen E. Meade, 2008. "Central Bank Independence and Transparency: Evolution and Effectiveness," IMF Working Papers 08/119, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Miguel Rueda, 2008. "Breaking Credibility in Monetary Policy: The Role of Politics in the Stability of the Central Banker," RES Working Papers 4585, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  3. Miguel Rueda, 2008. "Credibilidad en la política monetaria: Papel de políticas en la estabilidad del Presidente del Banco Central," RES Working Papers 4586, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  4. Alex Cukierman, 2006. "Central Bank Independence and Monetary Policymaking Institutions: Past, Present, and Future," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 360, Central Bank of Chile. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Agustin Carstens & Luis I. Jacome H., 2005. "Latin American Central Bank Reform: Progress and Challenges," Macroeconomics 0509022, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Da Silva, Sergio & Nunes, Mauricio, 2007. "Latin American foreign exchange intervention - Updated," MPRA Paper 1982, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  7. Nunes, Mauricio & Da Silva, Sergio, 2007. "Foreign exchange intervention and central bank independence: The Latin American experience," MPRA Paper 5073, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Raghbendra Jha, 2005. "Inflation Targeting in India: Issues and Prospects," ASARC Working Papers 2005-04, Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Luis Jácome & Eric Parrado, 2006. "The Quest for Price Stability in Central America and the Dominican Republic," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 390, Central Bank of Chile. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Jean-Francois Segalotto & Marco Arnone & Bernard Laurens, 2006. "Measures of Central Bank Autonomy: Empirical Evidence for OECD, Developing, and Emerging Market Economies," IMF Working Papers 06/228, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  11. Ulrich H. Klueh & Peter Stella, 2008. "Central Bank Financial Strength and Policy Performance: An Econometric Evaluation," IMF Working Papers 08/176, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
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