Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/109684 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
MAGKS Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics No. 11-2015
Publisher: 
Philipps-University Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Marburg
Abstract: 
We analyse German citizens' knowledge about monetary policy and the European Central Bank (ECB), as well as the public's use of mass communication media to obtain information about the ECB. We employ a unique representative public opinion survey of German households conducted in 2011. We find that a person's desire to be informed about the ECB, together with the use of various media channels to keep informed, are decisive for both (i) the person's perception of how much he or she knows about the ECB and (ii) the person's actual knowledge. The media-related influence varies by level of education and is stronger for subjective knowledge. Women are significantly less interested in and knowledgeable about the ECB. We conclude that the ECB is not only well advised to continue with education programmes designed to convince the public of the importance of knowing about monetary policy, but to take the gender-specific differences into account in doing so.
Subjects: 
ECB
Economic knowledge
Subjective knowledge
Information
JEL: 
A20
E52
E58
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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