01897cas a2200265 a 4500 AALejournalIMF005438 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451871104 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Cihak, Martin. Writing Clearly : ECB's Monetary Policy Communication / Martin Cihak, Katerina Smidkova, Ales Bulir. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2008. 1 online resource (34 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students The paper presents a methodology for measuring the clarity of central bank communication, illustrating it with the case of the European Central Bank (ECB) in 1999-2007. The analysis identifies the ECB's written communication as clear about 95 percent of instances, which is comparable to, or even better than, other central banks for which a similar analysis is available. We also find that the additional information contained in the ECB's Monthly Bulletins helps to improve communication clarity compared to ECB's press releases. In particular, the Bulletins contain useful clarifying information on individual inflation factors and the overall forecast risk; in contrast, the bulletin's communication on monetary shocks has a negative, albeit small, impact on clarity. Mode of access: Internet Bulir, Ales. Smidkova, Katerina. IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2008/252 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2008/252/001.2008.issue-252-en.xml IMF e-Library