Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-02T15:26:54.163Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - The Decision-Making Process

The ‘Groupvote’ Phenomenon

from IV - MPC Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Richard Barwell
Edited by
Sean Holly ,
Michael McMahon ,
Stephen Millard  and
Anna Watson
Sean Holly
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Michael McMahon
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Stephen Millard
Affiliation:
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
Anna Watson
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

This chapter highlights a number of potential explanations for the apparent disconnect between the votes and the views of dissenting members of the Monetary Policy Committee. The MPC appears to agree more than would be expected on the basis of views expressed elsewhere in speeches and papers. None of them are particularly satisfactory. The obvious way to establish which, if any, of these explanations are relevant is to ask former members of the Committee what they think. There remains a compelling case for producing an oral history of the Monetary Policy Committee if we want to understand how and why committees function in practice.

Keywords

dissenting votesvoting recordsgroupvotetransmission mechanism
Type
Chapter
Information
Reflections on Monetary Policy after 25 Years of the MPC , pp. 145 - 158
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barwell, Richard (2016), ‘Nine votes, one view and the never-ending consensus on the MPC during the great stability’, in Chadha, J., Chrystal, A, Pearlman, J., Smith, P. and Wright, S. (eds.), The UK Economy in the Long Expansion and Its Aftermath, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barwell, Richard (2019), ‘Inertial groupvote’, in Barwell, Richard and Chadha, Jagjit (eds.), Renewing Our Monetary Vows: Open Letters to the Governor of the Bank of England. National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Occasional Paper No. 58.Google Scholar
Bernanke, Ben (2004), ‘Gradualism’, Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke at an economics luncheon co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (Seattle Branch) and the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 20 May.Google Scholar
Blinder, Alan (2004), The Quiet Revolution: Central Banking Goes Modern. Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blinder, Alan (1999), Central Banking in Theory and Practice. MIT Press.Google Scholar
King, Mervyn (2007a), ‘The MPC ten years on’, lecture by Mr Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, to the Society of Business Economists, London, 2 May.Google Scholar
King, Mervyn (2007b), Interview with Financial Times, 3 May.Google Scholar
MPC (1999), The transmission mechanism of monetary policy, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Q2, May.Google Scholar
Rudebusch, Glenn (2006), ‘Monetary policy inertia: Fact or fiction?’ International Journal of Central Banking. 2(4), 85–135.Google Scholar
Sack, Brian (2000), ‘Does the Fed act gradually? A VAR analysis’, Journal of Monetary Economics. 46(1), 229–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Jeremy and Sunderam, Adi (2018), ‘The Fed, the bond market, and gradualism in monetary policy’, Journal of Finance. 73(3), 1015–60.Google Scholar
Svensson, Lars (2014), ‘Major differences between the majority and minority of the Riksbank Executive Board’, Mimeo.Google Scholar
Svensson, Lars (2016), ‘Goodfriend and king misreport the monetary policy stance of the minority’, Mimeo.Google Scholar
Tetlow, Robert (2019), ‘The monetary policy response to uncertain inflation persistence’, Economics Letters. 175, 5–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, Chris (2000), ‘Uncertainty and monetary policy’, FRBSF Economic Letter 2000–08.Google Scholar
Woodford, Michael (2003), ‘Optimal monetary policy inertia’, Review of Economic Studies. 70, 861–86.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×