Whats so funny about making monetary policy英文文献资料.pdf

WHAT’S SO FUNNY ABOUT MAKING MONETARY POLICY? KEVIN W. CAPEHART∗ During their meetings, the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) make monetary policy, but they also make each other laugh. This article studies the amount of laughter elicited by members of the FOMC during their meetings. The study finds that a member elicits more laughter if he or she expects higher inflation, other things being equal. This finding suggests that members may use humor to cope with the threat of inflation. (JEL E52, E58, C23) I. INTRODUCTION Yet the transcripts do reveal that members of the FOMC elicit laughter while making monetary In the United States, decisions about mon- policy. etary policy are made during meetings of the This elicitation of laughter by FOMC mem- Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Only bers has not received much attention from the members of the FOMC and a small number economists. Indeed, when a panel of economists of other people are allowed to attend these meet- and other experts discussed what would happen ings, but verbatim transcripts of the meetings are if a monetary policymaker ever tried to tell hilar- eventually released to the public (Spencer 1996, 1 ious jokes to the general public (Mehrling et al. 309–10). These tr