Dictatorships and Central Bank Transparency. How Do Autocrats Benefit from Central Bank Transparency? - Kathrin Baumann

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - Political Systems - General and Comparisons, grade: 1.3, University of Mannheim, language: English, abstract: The research question of this paper will be the following: how is central bank transparency bringing benefits to autocrats? Over the last decade, one could observe a rise in central bank transparency. Together with increased central bank independence, it has become one of the key features of monetary policy. Various studies have shown that central bank transparency is beneficial as it contributes to the well-being of a state, which could explain amongst others the worldwide increase. Unfortunately, most studies are limited to developed countries, of which the majority is ruled by democratic leaders. However, the researches of Dincer and Eichengreen (2007, 2009, 2014) have shown that dictatorships experienced an increase in central bank transparency too. Even though the increase in transparency is much higher in developed democratic countries, the average score has risen for both kind of regimes. Belarus for example had an overall gain of 3.5 points from 1.5 in 1988 to 5 in 2005, with 0 meaning no central bank transparency and 15 meaning full one. It is highly unlikely due to the repressive nature of autocracies that they would adopt central bank transparency whether they would not profit from it. So speaking, increased central bank transparency must also bring some economic benefits with it for autocrats.