Applying Lessons from the Past? Exploring Historical Analogies in ECB Speeches through Text Mining, 1997–2019

Anselm Küsters
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Anselm Küsters: Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory

International Journal of Central Banking, 2022, vol. 18, issue 1, 277-329

Abstract: By employing text mining methods such as structural topic modeling to examine all 2,135 speeches by ECB Executive Board members between February 1997 and October 2019, this paper identifies and analyzes a significant semantic change that occurred in ECB communication in the transition from the Great Moderation to the Great Recession. The methodology also allows for a structured and empirical assessment of the hypothesis that central bankers used "lessons from the past" during the crisis. The quantitative and qualitative results indicate that references to historical analogies indeed increased at the height of the crisis (2009–11) but often served only rhetorical functions.

JEL-codes: B29 C89 E58 N14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ijc:ijcjou:y:2022:q:1:a:7

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