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cadolph at uw dot edu

BANKERS,
BUREAUCRATS,
AND CENTRAL BANK POLITICS

            the myth of neutrality

Cambridge Studies in
Comparative Politics

Cambridge University Press
April 2013

CUP (hardback) · CUP (ebook)
Amazon (US) · Amazon (UK) · Foyles (UK)
Barnes & Noble (US) · Powell’s (US)

“In this path-breaking book Adolph offers a new approach to the study of central banks and monetary policy. Challenging the conventional assumption that central banks choose optimal policies if given enough autonomy to do so, Adolph argues that central bankers -- the people who actually make monetary policy -- are driven by their own narrow professional perspectives and ambitions. Often concerned to please potential future employers, they bend policies to win approval of ‘shadow principals’ -- especially big banks -- while the public interest takes a backseat. The argument has stark implications for government policies and central bank design, especially in a world that is still reeling from the financial crisis. Important and timely, this book will be widely read and debated.”
Torben Iversen, Harvard University

“Adolph combines good intuition with strong theorizing and thorough and imaginative empirical work to produce an analog in the bureaucratic world to the ‘citizen candidate’ model of electoral politics: central bankers’ career paths are a strong predictor of inflation rates. This is excellent, timely scholarship that will surely trigger a flurry of new studies. This is, in my view, a book ready for prime time.”
Frances Rosenbluth, Yale University

“Bankers, Bureaucrats, and Central Bank Politics is an important scholarly work that raises an issue that economists have largely missed: central bankers are people and have private incentives. How do these incentives affect their decisions? Adolph puts together the first data set on the career paths of central bank decision makers and subjects it to careful empirical analysis. A major contribution sure to be of interest to students of monetary policy and political economy.”
Dick Startz, University of California, Santa Barbara