Nationality at the ECB, does it matter?

In this report, we examine whether simple stereotypes surrounding the ECB president's nationality are true. The theory goes that central bankers from northern Europe are more focused on the inflation target and less worried about supporting growth while the opposite is said to be true for central bankers from southern Europe.

But is there any truth to these assumptions? To find out, we studied the speeches given by ECB Governing Council members, which consist of the governors of the national central banks of the 19 eurozone countries and the Executive Board members, including the president. We have categorised themes that these central bankers discussed and have found that:

• Northern governors prioritise monetary policy issues compared to southern central bankers. Differences between northern and southern central bankers increased in the aftermath of the crisis when southern governors intensified discussions on growth and labour market issues.
• French governors are closer to their northern colleagues than their southern ones in terms of topics discussed.
• However, the differences between the northern and southern central bankers are much less clear once people are on the ECB Executive Board as opposed to being the governing council member for their respective countries.