Actual versus Perceived Transparency: The Case of the European Central Bank

Carin van der Cruijsen and Sylvester Eijffinger ()

DNB Working Papers from Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department

Abstract: Central banks have become more and more transparent about their monetary policy making process. In the central bank transparency literature the distinction between actual and perceived transparency is often lacking. However, as perceptions are crucial for the actions of economic agents this distinction matters. We investigate the mismatch between actual and perceived transparency and its relevance by analyzing data of a Dutch household survey on the European Central Bank's transparency. A discrepancy between actual and perceived transparency exists because of incomplete and incorrect transparency knowledge and other (psychological) factors. We find that respondents with relatively high transparency perceptions are more likely to have more trust in the ECB and better alligned inflation perceptions and expectations. Therefore, it might be beneficial for a central bank to increase transparency perceptions, either by improving its actual disclosure practices or by focusing on its transparency strengths in its communicationpolicy.

Keywords: Central bank transparency; Perceptions; Survey; CentERpanel; Behavioral Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D80 E52 E58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-eec, nep-knm, nep-mac and nep-mon
Date: 2008-01
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:163

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