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Ex Uno Plures: Central Banking by Committee

Alan S. Blinder

in The Quiet Revolution: Central Banking Goes Modern

This chapter focuses on whether monetary policy decisions are best made by an individual or by a committee. In the real world, there has been a clear trend in the way central banks organize ... More

This chapter focuses on whether monetary policy decisions are best made by an individual or by a committee. In the real world, there has been a clear trend in the way central banks organize themselves to conduct monetary policy: the one-man rule used to be the norm, but today most central banks make decisions by committee. This trend is probably due to the perceived success of the Fed and the Bundesbank. However, there are also several sound theoretical reasons, backed up by some supporting evidence, to favor a monetary policy committee over an individual governor. The chapter argues that most of these reasons come down, in one way or another, to diversification of risk. A multimember committee pools preferences, models, forecasts, and much else—thereby reducing the risk that a dictatorial central bank governor might lead the bank astray.Less

Improving Public Policy Decisions in Creating Institutions and Markets to Transfer Natural Disaster Risk in Developing Countries

Jerry R. Skees and Grant Cavanaugh

in Comparative Decision Making

This chapter considers patterns in individual and collective decision making that lead to a prevailing under-preparedness for natural catastrophes. They focus on a particular risk-management ... More

This chapter considers patterns in individual and collective decision making that lead to a prevailing under-preparedness for natural catastrophes. They focus on a particular risk-management tool—index insurance. At the heart of suboptimal decision-making is the tendency of insurance buyers to underestimate the risk posed by low-probability, high-consequence events, while insurance providers tend to overestimate risk to avoid having inadequate funds when a natural catastrophe occurs. The result is that insurance may be overpriced relative to demand, and the population is underprotected. Index insurance uses the probability of a damaging event’s occurrence as the basis for payment, rather than an assessment of individual losses. Natural disaster risk is problematic for insurers because of geographic correlations. This requires transferring the highest risks to global markets or when feasible to government, whereas more moderate risk and less geographically widespread risk can be borne by traditional insurance market, and small losses can be absorbed as deductibles by insurance buyers. Less

Diversity on the Bench of the European Court of Human Rights: A Clash of Paradigms

Angelika Nußberger and Freya Baetens

in Identity and Diversity on the International Bench: Who is the Judge?

International courts differ from national courts in terms of the perception of their diversity. Factors that constitute the identity of adjudicators and are perceived as neutral at the domestic ... More

International courts differ from national courts in terms of the perception of their diversity. Factors that constitute the identity of adjudicators and are perceived as neutral at the domestic level, such as age, former profession, and cultural background, are not necessarily considered neutral in an international court. Conversely, factors that are not seen as acceptable domestically, such as membership of a political party, may be acceptable for judges at the international level. In order to understand the role of international judges in general and those on the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) bench in particular, this chapter scrutinizes the factors influencing the world views and personalities of judges and their effects on the judicial process (leaning towards collective or individual decision-making) as well as the extent to which the judiciary is perceived as trustworthy. The chapter also analyses the ECtHR’s continuous battle with the fundamental balancing act of dispensing individual justice while safeguarding the consistency of the system in its entirety. In the final section, the chapter examines the factors that unify the Court despite, or perhaps even because of, its diversity.Less

Bourdieu and Practice Theory: From the Kabyle House to the Street Corner

in Language of the Gun: Youth, Crime, and Public Policy

This chapter focuses on practice theory and on the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, who self-consciously intervened in an effort to overcome the debate between Sartre and Lévi-Strauss: How does structure ... More

This chapter focuses on practice theory and on the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, who self-consciously intervened in an effort to overcome the debate between Sartre and Lévi-Strauss: How does structure relate to individual decision making? In the case of the Catalina interviews (interviews of young males at the Catalina Mountain School in Tucson, Arizona), how are the registers of gun talk connected to the practice of carrying guns? Do they help us understand why the Catalina youths possess guns, and can they help us predict which youths carry? Do the registers influence practice so as to perpetuate or undermine the language itself? Do the structures change over time? And what would account for the change? In sum, how do the registers of gun talk relate to the individual decisions to carry guns? Pierre Bourdieu specifically addressed these questions, and the approach he helped develop—known as “practice theory”—represents the perfect illustration of a third methodological approach to social science.Less

Embracing the Paradigm of Dirty Hands

in Language of the Gun: Youth, Crime, and Public Policy

The Catalina interviews (the interviews of young males at the Catalina Mountain School in Tucson, Arizona) lend support to four methodological approaches. But at the same time, they expose the ... More

The Catalina interviews (the interviews of young males at the Catalina Mountain School in Tucson, Arizona) lend support to four methodological approaches. But at the same time, they expose the assumptions about human behavior embedded in each. The interviews reveal moments of individual decision making, of instrumental reasoning, and deliberate choice. The Catalina interviews also reveal recurring registers of gun talk. Commodities, protection, suicide—there are patterns in the way the Catalina youths talk about guns. But how do those patterns become necessary, and why should we assume that they influence behavior? The youths recount recurring scripts about gun carrying. They seem to know well how to play these encounters. At the same time, the reiteration seems to modify the performance. Sometimes it leads to gunfire, at other times to a standoff. The empirical data from the Catalina School raise more questions than they answer.Less