From Information to Collaboration: Quantifying Central Banks’ Engagement with the Public

Abstract

Modern central banks communicate extensively. While the impact of central bank communication on financial markets has been widely studied, central banks’ interactions with the wider public represents a “new frontier” in this research. This paper complements the established political economy and existing central bank communication literature in that it presents a systematic approach to quantifying, measuring and evaluating nine central banks’ engagement with the wider public by constructing a central bank engagement index. The index encompasses a range of communication efforts, taking into account how central banks inform and educate the wider public on its actions as well as central banks’ consultation and collaboration efforts with citizens. The index allows for a comparative assessment of how much central banks are willing to embark on new ways of communication in order to reach out to and engage with their audiences. We find a remarkable variation in the focus of engagement across central banks, suggesting that no consensus on an ‘optimal’ level of engagement has emerged.