What Do Central Bankers Do? Evidence from the European Central Banks' Executive Board

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines how managers at the top of a public institution, central bank executives, allocate their working time. Using detailed information from personal diaries of the six members of the European Central Bank’s Executive Board over a period of two years, we codify and analyze more than 3,700 reported activities and compare the results with recent findings on the time use of CEOs in the private sector. We report four additional observations. First, the daily schedule of central bankers is dominated by routine tasks; variations in economic uncertainty have, on average, no significant effect on the number of activities. Second, there are sizable differences in the scope of activities across board members. Third, the change in publication rules of diary entries from ‘on request’ to ‘regular’ was associated with a significant decline in reported activities. Fourth, nationality matters: Board members interact disproportionately often with fellow nationals.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 7467

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Institutions and the Macroeconomy ; Central Banks and Their Policies ; Public Administration; Public Sector Accounting and Audits
• Subject: governance ; management ; time use

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Badinger, Harald ; Nitsch, Volker
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2019

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/198827
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET