The Bank of England, the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) have responded to the crisis with exceptional initiatives resulting in a major increase in their balance sheets. After the ECB's end-2011 launch of three-year bank refinancing (LTRO), there has been speculation...

A formal model of the appointment process -- Estimating monetary policy preferences -- Empirically testing the model's predictions -- Appointments to the European Central Bank -- The origins of the Federal Reserve appointment process -- Conclusions

We assume that central banks can control inflation so that inflation rates reflect the preferences of the central bank council.The hypothesis to be tested is that these preferences depend on the central bankers' educational and/or professional background. In a panel data analysis for the euro...