On Tuesday, September 10, Hoover senior fellow John B. Taylor received the 2013 Adolph G. Abramson Award from the National Association of Business Economics (NABE) for his article “The Effectiveness of Central Bank Independence Versus Policy Rules,” which appeared in the July 2013 edition of the journal Business Economics. The award, in honor of the NABE’s first president, is given to the author of the best Business Economics article of the year. Taylor accepted the award at the annual meeting of the Association in San Francisco. The paper, first issued as a as Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research discussion paper, can be read here.
In his article, Taylor shows that existing law about central bank independence has not prevented the Federal Reserve from engaging in discretionary actions and deviating from its rule-based policy framework in a way that reduces its de facto independence from the rest of government. Moreover, the record shows that these deviations from the Fed’s rules-based framework have been a factor in poor economic performance, including high unemployment.
Taylor, in addition to his many other awards, was given the Adam Smith Award from NABE in 2007 for his leadership in economic research.
For additional information, please see the NABE press release.
