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Do Women Matter in Monetary Policy Boards?

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  • Donato Masciandaro
  • Paola Profeta
  • Davide Romelli

Abstract

We construct a new dataset on the presence of women on central bank monetary policy committees for a set of 103 countries, over the period 2002-2016. We document an increasing share of women in monetary policy committees, which is mainly associated with a higher overall presence of women in central banks and less so with other institutional factors or country characteristics. We then investigate the impact of this trend on monetary policymaking by estimating Taylor rules augmented to include the share of women on monetary policy committees. We show that central bank boards with a higher proportion of women set higher interest rates for the same level of inflation. This suggests that women board members have a more hawkish approach to monetary policy. We confirm this result by analysing the voting behaviour of members of the executive board of the Swedish Central Bank during the period 2000-2017.

Suggested Citation

  • Donato Masciandaro & Paola Profeta & Davide Romelli, 2020. "Do Women Matter in Monetary Policy Boards?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 20148, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp20148
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    Cited by:

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    3. Ana María Iregui-Bohórquez & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo & Sara Isabel Caicedo-Silva, 2024. "Las mujeres en la banca central: El caso del Banco de la República de Colombia, 1923-2023," Cuadernos de Historia Económica 62, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    4. Peter Breyer & Eleonora Endlich & Dieter Huber & Doris Oswald & Christoph Prenner & Lukas Reiss & Martin Schneider & Walter Waschiczek, 2021. "Eigenkapitalausstattung österreichischer Unternehmen – Hindernisse und Handlungsoptionen," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q3/21, pages 1-22.
    5. Davide Romelli & Hamza Bennani, 2021. "Disagreement inside the FOMC: New Insights from Tone Analysis," Trinity Economics Papers tep1021, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    6. Bodea, Cristina & Kerner, Andrew, 2022. "Fear of inflation and gender representation in central banking," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Petia Niederländer & Doris Ritzberger-Grünwald & Karin Turner-Hrdlicka, 2021. "Gender, money and finance," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q3/21, pages 83-92.
    8. Rieder, Kilian, 2022. "Monetary policy decision-making by committee: Why, when and how it can work," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Central banks; Monetary Policy Committees; Women on boards; Taylor rule;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E02 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Institutions and the Macroeconomy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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