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Is the Word of a Gentleman as Good as His Tweet? Policy communications of the Bank of England

Author

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  • Michael J. Lamla

    (Leuphana University Lüneburg and ETH Zürich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute)

  • Dmitri V. Vinogradov

    (University of Glasgow and National Research University Higher School of Economics)

Abstract

Policy announcements by central banks affect financial markets, but their effect on consumer beliefs is limited. This paper studies the implications of using different communication channels: established media outlets versus social media. Information on the news sources comes from our original consumer surveys administered just before and right after policy announcement events, enabling a causal inference on the announce- ment effect. We focus on the Bank of England, the first central bank to actively adopt accessible language, simplified messages and new forms of communication via its Twitter account. Based on about 10 000 individual consumer responses in 2018-2019, overall we find no statistically significant effect of announcements on perceptions or expectations, yet respondents who receive news have better perceptions and expectations than those who don't. Policy announcement events trigger an increase in the share of consumers who receive monetary policy news, the share of informed consumers is higher among Twitter users, suggesting potential benefits from Twitter communication with the public. However, Twitter users tend to overestimate inflation and interest rates, make a greater expectations/perception error. In addition they report higher confidence in their estimates. In terms of expectations quality, spreading the word of the Central bank via conventional mass media appears to be more effective than tweets.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael J. Lamla & Dmitri V. Vinogradov, 2021. "Is the Word of a Gentleman as Good as His Tweet? Policy communications of the Bank of England," Working Paper Series in Economics 403, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lue:wpaper:403
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Alan S. Blinder & Michael Ehrmann & Jakob de Haan & David-Jan Jansen, 2024. "Central Bank Communication with the General Public: Promise or False Hope?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(2), pages 425-457, June.
    2. Ehrmann, Michael & Wabitsch, Alena, 2022. "Central bank communication with non-experts – A road to nowhere?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 69-85.
    3. Julien Pinter & Evzen Kocenda, 2021. "Media Treatment of Monetary Policy Surprises and Their Impact on Firms' and Consumers' Expectations," Working Papers IES 2021/30, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Sep 2021.
    4. Gabriele Galati & Richhild Moessner & Maarten van Rooij, 2022. "Reactions of household inflation expectations to a symmetric inflation target and high inflation (August 2022 update)," Working Papers 743, DNB.
    5. Ehrmann, Michael & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Kenny, Geoff, 2023. "Credibility gains from communicating with the public: evidence from the ECB’s new monetary policy strategy," Working Paper Series 2785, European Central Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    perceptions; expectations; central bank communication; consumer; Twitter;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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