U.S. monetary policy is determined primarily by the Federal Open Market Committee. This paper examined whether the Reserve Bank president's voting behavior at the FOMC is influenced by economic conditions in their district, using new and precise estimates of district unemployment and a longer...

Monetary union has dawned in Europe. Now that the common currency is a reality, questions concerning the practical conduct of monetary policy in the European Monetary Union (EMU) are moving to the forefront of the policy debate. Among these, one of the most critical is how the new monetary union...