Over the last twenty years, the process of European integration, and improvements in the processing and transmission of information, have meant that the European financial system has become less bank-based and more market-based. This trend has been reinforced by the transition to a single...

The European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) are shadowed by professionals and academic economists who provide a separate policy rate recommendation in advance of the central bank's announcement. We explore differences between shadow and actual committee decisions based on an...