Central Bank Independence Revisited

Ed Balls, research fellow at Harvard’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government (M-RCBG), and his coauthor, Anna Stansbury, presented the updated M-RCBG working paper, “Central Bank Independence Revisited: After the financial crisis, what should a model central bank look like?” on April 23, 2018, at the Peterson Institute. The paper examines whether the empirical case for central bank independence has collapsed, whether the new powers central banks have accumulated put independence at risk, and what further reforms are needed at the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. The Honorable Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard’s Charles W. Eliot University Professor, and Adam S. Posen, PIIE president, will discuss policy issues.

Ed Balls was UK shadow chancellor from 2011 to 2015. He served in the British Cabinet as education secretary (2007–10). He was previously UK minister for financial services (2006–07) and chief economic adviser to the UK Treasury (1997–2004), during which time he was chair of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) deputies and UK G-20 deputy.

Anna Stansbury is an economics PhD student at Harvard and a PhD scholar in Harvard's Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy. She received a BA in economics from Cambridge University in 2013 and an MA in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School in 2015.