Abstract
The European Central Bank (ECB) has on average been successful in reducing the extent of euphoria on financial markets and avoiding an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) meltdown. This apparent success story leads to a thorny question, however: does the ECB’s “market performance” reflect in the data on the popularity and effectiveness of the central bank? The issue is addressed in the context of Europe’s changing political climate, including protests and the upsurge of anti-establishment parties in a number of member states, with several implications for the future of monetary policy.
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Notes
- 1.
For a small difference between trust in EC and trust in ECB the data could be interpreted as the extent to which the lack of support is more generalised at the EU level.
- 2.
For a discussion on the income distribution consequences of the crisis, see D’Errico et al. (2015).
- 3.
The Eurobarometer survey, in particular, faces manifold limitations. For a critical discussion, see Höpner and Jurczyk (2015).
- 4.
Because of its large debt stock, the rhetoric has always been that Italy could have decided to leave the euro area to regain competitiveness of its economy, which has been severely compromised by the appreciation of the euro and has not balanced the moderate growth of labour costs (Majone 2012).
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Macchiarelli, C., Monti, M., Wiesner, C., Diessner, S. (2020). How Popular Has the ECB Been? Popularity, Protest, and Populism Post Crisis. In: The European Central Bank between the Financial Crisis and Populisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44348-1_6
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