Book Reviews

Abstract

Donato Masciandaro of Bocconi University reviews, “Bankers, Bureaucrats, and Central Bank Politics: The Myth of Neutrality” by Christopher Adolph. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Presents a new approach to the politics of money, focusing on the role played by central bankers and their preferences. Discusses agents, institutions, and the political economy of performance; career theories of monetary policy; central banker careers and inflation in industrial democracies; careers and the monetary policy process—three mechanism tests; careers and inflation in developing countries; how central bankers use their independence; partisan governments, labor unions, and monetary policy; the politics of central banker appointment; the politics of central banker tenure; and the dilemma of discretion. Adolph is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Statistics, and a core faculty member of the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle.”