Central Bank Economic Research: Output, Demand, Productivity, and Relevance

Abstract

The economic research of 30 central banks from OECD and Latin America countries during 2000 to 2007 is evaluated in this study. An international comparison based on four indexes on research output, demand, productivity and relevance is included. The European Central Bank, the United States Federal Reserve Bank-Board of Governors and the Bank of Canada showed the higher performance. The Central Bank of Colombia achieves an important position among the selected central banks and holds its position in most of the indexes. Three aspects of research were examined in depth: i) focusing of the research agenda, ii) research organization, and iii) research strategies for six leading central banks in the sample, including the Central Bank of Colombia. Results show that central banks tend to develop more studies with academic institutions. This practice allows them to amplify the range of their analysis by having an outside perspective, while getting expertise with recent techniques and theories for high quality economic analysis, which may contributes to better policy design.

Keywords: Central banks, economic research

JEL Classification: E59, A11