IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/lawfin/33.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Climate change versus price stability: How "green" central bankers and members of the European parliament became pragmatic (yet precarious) bedfellows

Author

Listed:
  • Massoc, Elsa C.

Abstract

The European Central Bank (ECB) recently proclaimed a more active role for itself in the fight against climate change. Did the European Parliament (EP) play a part in this regard, and if so what was it? To answer this question, this paper builds on a multi-method text analysis of original datasets compiling communications between the ECB and the EP across three accountability forums between 2014 and 2021. The paper shows that there has been discursive convergence between central bankers and parliamentarians concerning the role of the ECB in combatting climate change. It argues that this convergence has resulted from a pragmatic (yet precarious) adoption of a common repertoire1 between 'green' central bankers and parliamentarians who have favored a more active role for the ECB in the fight against climate change. The adoption of a common repertoire is pragmatic, in that it results from the strategic use of specific discursive elements that are ambitious enough to address their respective opponents and trigger political change, yet vague enough to allow both sets of actors to converge on them momentarily. It is also precarious in the sense that it involves discarding fundamental political tensions, which is hardly tenable in the long term. The paper shows that both organizational and politicization dynamics have been at work in the emergence of this pragmatic yet precarious bedfellowship between 'green' central bankers and parliamentarians.

Suggested Citation

  • Massoc, Elsa C., 2022. "Climate change versus price stability: How "green" central bankers and members of the European parliament became pragmatic (yet precarious) bedfellows," LawFin Working Paper Series 33, Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:lawfin:33
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/261463/1/1810742609.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Braun, Benjamin, 2016. "Speaking to the people? Money, trust, and central bank legitimacy in the age of quantitative easing," MPIfG Discussion Paper 16/12, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. Paul De Grauwe, 2014. "The Governance of a Fragile Eurozone," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Exchange Rates and Global Financial Policies, chapter 12, pages 297-320, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Paul De Grauwe, 2012. "A Fragile Eurozone in Search of a Better Governance," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 43(1), pages 1-30.
    4. Benjamin Braun, 2016. "Speaking to the people? Money, trust, and central bank legitimacy in the age of quantitative easing," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 1064-1092, November.
    5. Gros, Daniel, 2016. "Negative Rates and Seigniorage: Turning the central bank business model upside down? The special case of the ECB," CEPS Papers 11754, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    6. Masciandaro, Donato & Quintyn, Marc & Taylor, Michael W., 2008. "Inside and outside the central bank: Independence and accountability in financial supervision: Trends and determinants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 833-848, December.
    7. Fraccaroli, Nicolò & Giovannini, Alessandro & Jamet, Jean-Francois & Persson, Eric, 2022. "Ideology and monetary policy: the role of political parties’ stances in the ECB’s parliamentary hearings," Working Paper Series 2655, European Central Bank.
    8. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:1085-1105 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Erik Jones, 2009. "Output Legitimacy and the Global Financial Crisis: Perceptions Matter," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5), pages 1085-1105, November.
    10. Manuela Moschella & Nicola M Diodati, 2020. "Does politics drive conflict in central banks’ committees? Lifting the veil on the European Central Bank consensus," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(2), pages 183-203, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Massoc, Elsa Clara, 2022. "How do Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) hold the European Central Bank (ECB) accountable? A descriptive quantitative analysis of three accountability forums (2014-2021)," LawFin Working Paper Series 40, Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin).
    2. Muireann O'Dwyer, 2022. "Gender and Crises in European Economic Governance: Is this Time Different?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 152-169, January.
    3. Catherine Mathieu & Henri Sterdyniak, 2012. "Faut-il des règles de politique budgétaire ?," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(7), pages 299-346.
    4. Christophe Blot & Jérôme Creel & Paul Hubert & Fabien Labondance, 2015. "The QE experience : Worth a try ?," Post-Print hal-03459951, HAL.
    5. Catherine Mathieu & Henri Sterdyniak, 2014. "Redemption?," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(1), pages 51-91.
    6. Donato Masciandaro, 2020. "Covid-19 Helicopter Money, Monetary Policy And Central Bank Independence: Economics And Politics," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 20137, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    7. Alexandra Ferreira-Lopes & Tiago Neves Sequeira, 2012. "Business Cycles Association in a Small Monetary Union: The Case of Switzerland," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 9-30, March.
    8. Bartzokas, Anthony & Giacon, Renato & Macchiarelli, Corrado, 2022. "Exogenous shocks and proactive resilience in the EU," MERIT Working Papers 2022-025, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Andrea Bonilla‐Bolaños, 2021. "A step further in the theory of regional integration: A look at the South American integration strategy," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 845-873, July.
    10. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/eo6779thqgm5r489maqa474kg is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Giovanni Dosi & Marcello Minenna & Andrea Roventini & Roberto Violi, 2021. "Making the Eurozone work: a risk-sharing reform of the European Stability Mechanism," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 617-657, April.
    12. Christophe Blot & Jérôme Creel & Paul Hubert & Fabien Labondance, 2014. "Les enjeux du triple mandat de la BCE," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(3), pages 175-186.
    13. Clément Fontan & David Howarth, 2021. "The European Central Bank and the German Constitutional Court: Police Patrols and Fire Alarms," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 241-251.
    14. Deborah Mabbett & Waltraud Schelkle, 2014. "Searching under the lamp-post: the evolution of fiscal surveillance," Europe in Question Discussion Paper Series of the London School of Economics (LEQs) 5, London School of Economics / European Institute.
    15. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/7gjmt2p0l896bo3oar8rqd4vvr is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Mariam Camarero & Josep Lluís Carrion‐i‐Silvestre & Cecilio Tamarit, 2021. "External imbalances from a GVAR perspective," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(11), pages 3202-3245, November.
    17. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/eo6779thqgm5r489m6u1i2a0o is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Carnazza, Giovanni & Liberati, Paolo, 2021. "The asymmetric impact of the pandemic crisis on interest rates on public debt in the Eurozone," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 521-542.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7gjmt2p0l896bo3oar8rqd4vvr is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Saungweme, Talknice & Odhiambo, Nicholas M, 2019. "Relative impact of domestic and foreign public debt on economic growth in South Africa," Working Papers 25664, University of South Africa, Department of Economics.
    21. Collignon, Stefan & Esposito, Piero, 2021. "Macroeconomic imbalances in Europe: How to overcome the fallacy of unit labour costs," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 673-691.
    22. Stefan Angrick, 2018. "Structural conditions for currency internationalization: international finance and the survival constraint," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 699-725, September.
    23. Singh, Manish K. & Gómez-Puig, Marta & Sosvilla-Rivero, Simón, 2021. "Quantifying sovereign risk in the euro area," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 76-96.
    24. Kapeller, Jakob & Gräbner, Claudius & Heimberger, Philipp, 2019. "Economic polarisation in Europe: Causes and policy options," ifso working paper series 5, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Socioeconomics (ifso).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    accountability; politicization; European Central Bank; European Parliament; climate; price stability;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:lawfin:33. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hoffmde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.