ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we conduct a comparative meta-analysis between studies of transition economies and those of the rest of the world that empirically examined the disinflation effect of central bank independence (CBI). Results of a meta-synthesis using a total of 337 estimates collected from 28 previous studies indicate that both transition and non-transition studies have successfully identified a negative relationship between CBI and inflation. Moreover, our meta-regression analysis suggested that the choice of estimator, inflation variable type, degree of freedom, and quality level of the study strongly affected the empirical results concerning transition economies, along with the selection of a CBI variable. We also found that no significant difference exists between the two types of studies in terms of both effect size and statistical significance so long as we control for a series of study conditions. This result implies that the socioeconomic setting of a society as it concerns the CBI-inflation problem has developed as substantially in transition economies as in other developed and developing economies.
JEL classification: E31; E58; G18; P24; P34
