Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Central Bank Independence on Inflation

Studies conducted on the relationship between central bank independence and inflation show heterogeneity in the results. Some of these studies have concluded a negative relationship, while others have concluded a positive or insignificant relationship between central bank independence and inflation. The purpose of this study is to conduct a multilevel meta-analysis to examine the effect of central bank independence on inflation. For this purpose, all full-text articles that examined the relationship between central bank independence and inflation were reviewed. After reviewing the content and results, 58 studies were selected to enter the meta-analysis based on the meta-analysis protocol. Data from 58 selected studies included 619 regressions and 913 coefficients that were extracted and coded. In the first level of meta-analysis, the regression coefficients of each study were combined and the effect size of each study was calculated. In the second level of meta-analysis, to calculate the total effect size, the effect size of 58 studies was determined according to the weight of each study. The result of the combination and conclusion of individual studies shows that the independence of the central bank has a small negative and significant effect on inflation. The results also showed that the type of index used to calculate the degree of central bank independence affects the relationship under meta-analysis. In addition, the negative effect of central bank independence on inflation is greater in developed countries than in other countries.