This paper investigates persuasion as a means of influence for the Federal Reserve Chairman in meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Using textual records of FOMC meetings, federal funds rate targets have been recorded for Committee members who served in the Arthur Burns era...

This paper investigates decision making within the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve, focusing on the competing pressures of majority rule, consensus building, and the power of the Chairman. To undertake this analysis, we have constructed an original data set recording desired...

This paper uses data from a new, large survey to estimate the demand for financial services of low-and-moderate income households. We show that socio-economic characteristics have significant and importantly different effects on the choices about which bank accounts to have. In particular,...