Work

Does clarity make central banks more engaging? Lessons from ECB communications

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Despite increasing communication efforts, it may be difficult for central banks to engage the public, as their language is often too difficult to understand for most citizens. Focusing on the case of the European Central Bank (ECB), we hypothesise that greater communication clarity is conducive to stronger engagement. We rely on readability metrics to measure the clarity of ECB communications. We show that communication clarity is a significant and robust predictor of the media engagement generated by the ECB with its speeches, press conferences and tweets. Our findings are validated by a placebo test and have significant policy implications for central bank communication.

Source: European Journal of Political Economy

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102146

Authors: Federico Maria Ferrara, Siria Angino

Institutions: London School of Economics and Political Science, European Central Bank

Language: English

Topic: Public Relations and Crisis Communication

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,890

Funders: European Commission, European Central Bank, European Research Council, H2020 European Research Council