superior as it also lowers public’s monitoring cost. Nevertheless, independent central bankers are less likely to embrace it if … they perceive public scrutiny (accountability) as intrusive. Combining these findings implies that both goal …-transparency and accountability will be negatively related to goal-independence for which we present empirical support using …

The first part of this paper outlines the concept of democratic accountability of central banks, and compares the legal … accountability of the ECB with some other central banks (Bank of Canada, Bank of Japan, Bank of England and the Federal Reserve … System). In the second part, we present a theory of central bank accountability. Two aspects of accountability are considered …