← Search

Journal of Financial Stability Vol. 5 No. 4 2009

Central bank independence and financial instability

Jeroen Klomp1; Jakob de Haan

1 University of Groningen

Abstract

It has been argued that central bank independence (CBI) may not only be beneficial for reaching the objective of price stability, but also for maintaining financial stability. Greater independence from external pressure implies that central banks are less politically constrained in acting to prevent financial distress, while it also will allow them to act earlier and more decisively when a crisis erupts. We estimate the relation between CBI and a newly constructed measure of financial instability using a dynamic panel model for the period 1985–2005 with a large set of control variables. We find a significant and robust negative relation between CBI and financial instability, which is mostly due to political independence.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfs.2008.10.001
Volume
5
Issue
4
Pages
321-338
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite