Economics
Central Banking Awards 2022: final winners unveiled
Prizes for Central bank of the year, Lifetime achievement, Transparency, Economics and more
Lifetime achievement: Stanley Fischer
Fischer has had a profound impact on monetary economics and central banking during his prolific career
IMF says Ukraine invasion likely to cut global growth
Higher commodity and food prices will impact Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Central Asia
Fed officials debate risks of a ‘hot economy’
Academics and policy-makers weigh up whether economy is now overheating
Book notes: Imagining the Fed, by Nicolas Thompson
A worthwhile perspective on the evolution of such an important institution, but a shame that it isn’t a longer and broader examination
Change at the Bundesbank: from Weidmann to Nagel?
Joachim Nagel’s appointment highlights the importance of politics at the apex of German central banking. Veteran central bank watcher Klaus C Engelen looks at the media reaction and asks if Buba/ECB discord is set to continue
Holocaust survivor reparations boosted families’ education and wages
Bank of Israel paper studies the long-term consequences of compensation received by victims
Eurozone deficits and debt declined in Q3 2021
But debt levels in the bloc remain at high levels, especially in Southern Europe
Biden nominates three to Fed board
Republican senator signals likely opposition to president’s pick for top supervisor
Economics Benchmarks 2021 report – executive summary
Covid-19 coloured central banks’ views on the governance of their economics function in the past year, from research topics to forecasting, data, publications and more
BoE to publish ‘pop-economics’ book
‘Can’t we just print more money?’ is latest step in educational push by central bank
Book notes: The cost of free money, by Paola Subacchi
A book worth reading, as it facilitates further discussion on substantial issues, but doesn’t fully address some of the problems it takes aim at
Larger research teams tend to publish more
Central banks with bigger teams report greater publishing volumes, but variation remains
Advanced economies draw on wider range of models
DSGE models and newer techniques more common at advanced economy central banks
Quarterly forecast updates predominate
Frequency of forecasts varies more widely in emerging markets
Data services centralised at minority of central banks
Central data governance and technology services used by three in 10 central banks
BdF paper looks at use of capital controls and foreign reserves
Many countries combine both to moderate effects of international capital flows
Alternative data fuels central bank research
Important research areas include monetary transmission, exchange rates, digitisation, SMEs and climate change, against the backdrop of Covid
Cash: important for a fairer economy
One interesting economic story over the past year has been the growth in grassroots support for cash payments. Against the backdrop of the Covid‑19 pandemic and now debunked rumours that coins and banknotes could be significant transmission vectors for…
One in five central bank economists have a PhD
Central banks in Africa lag behind peers in sponsoring PhD programmes
Book notes: Empire of silver, by Jin Xu
A useful introduction to China’s monetary history, focusing on the last 1,000 years, but not the easiest of reads throughout
Economist salaries outpace GDP per capita
Salaries were six times higher than GDP per capita, on average
How Turkey’s president created chaos in economic policy-making
Observers allege presidential domination of the central bank, unauthorised FX transactions and untrustworthy statistics
Policy economists outnumber research economists
Central banks with their own pure research departments tend to employ more policy economists