The European Central Bank: From a price stability paradigm to a multidimensional stability paradigm
| dc.contributor.author | Quaglia, Lucia | |
| dc.contributor.author | Verdun, Amy | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-02-03T22:21:32Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-02-03T22:21:32Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This article maps and explains the shift in economic thinking at the European Central Bank (ECB), i.e., its “ideational” evolution over the past two decades. When the ECB was set up in 1999 its institutional design and epistemic outlook were very much inspired by the legacy of the German central bank, the Bundesbank. Thus, the ECB embraced a “price stability” paradigm that prioritized inflation control. However, over time, policy learning in response to economic shocks (first and foremost, a series of consecutive financial and economic crises from 2008 onwards) and the internal organic evolution of the ECB have led to a shift of economic thinking at the Bank, which has also been reflected by its policy actions. The new paradigm can be characterized as a “multidimensional stability” paradigm. By relying on inter alia secondary literature, speeches, semi‐structured elite interviews, and data we collected concerning the previous experience at national central banks of senior ECB staff, we identify a novel causal mechanism for ideational change at the Bank: the change in the composition of senior managerial staff from 1999 onward. | |
| dc.description.reviewstatus | Reviewed | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Faculty | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support generously provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada for the SSHRC Insight Grant (435–2021‐0908) that supports the research reported on in this article and SSHRC Connection Grant 611–2023‐0019 that supported a workshop bringing the thematic issue’s authors together. The SSHRC Connection Grant 611–2023‐0019 (had as main applicant Amy Verdun and as collaborators Amie Kreppel, Anna‐Lena Högenauer, Lucia Quaglia, and Will Bateman) supported the 1‐3 November 2023 workshop, which was also financially supported by the Austrian National University, Leiden University, the University of Florida, and the University of Luxembourg. | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Quaglia, L., & Verdun, A. (2024). The European Central Bank: From a price stability paradigm to a multidimensional stability paradigm. Politics and Governance, 13. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8920 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8920 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/21056 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Politics and Governance | |
| dc.rights | Attribution 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | central bank | |
| dc.subject | crisis | |
| dc.subject | euro | |
| dc.subject | European Central Bank | |
| dc.subject | monetary policy | |
| dc.subject | policy paradigms | |
| dc.title | The European Central Bank: From a price stability paradigm to a multidimensional stability paradigm | |
| dc.type | Article |