Central banking has been traditionally characterized by mystique and an organizational culture of secrecy. While in recent years there has been a shift towards greater transparency in response to a public demand for higher accountability of independent central banks, the degree of transparency continues to vary across countries. The present study examines whether and how the differences in central bank transparency can be explained by a national culture of secretiveness. Using a large cross-country sample of central banks from around the globe we document a negative association between central bank transparency and a societal culture of secrecy. This finding is robust to the controls for various country-specific attributes, and the use of instrumental regressions to lessen concerns about endogeneity.

传统上，中央银行的特点是神秘性和保密的组织文化。尽管近年来，随着公众对独立中央银行问责制的要求而朝着提高透明度的方向发展，但各国之间的透明度程度仍在变化。本研究调查了是否可以以及如何通过一种国家的秘密文化来解释中央银行透明度的差异。通过使用来自全球各地的大量中央银行的跨国样本，我们发现中央银行的透明度与保密的社会文化之间存在负相关关系。这一发现对于针对各种国家特定属性的控件以及使用工具回归来减少对内生性的担忧是有力的。