E&F Talk Tho Pham (York): Central Bank Communication on Social Media: What, To Whom, How?

The Department for Economics & Finance is pleased to welcome Tho Pham (University of York) who will speak about:

Central Bank Communication on Social Media: What, To Whom, How?
(with Yuiry Gorodnichenko (UC Berkeley) and Oleksandr Talavera (University of Birmingham)

Abstract: This study provides answers to 3 questions about central bank communication on Twitter: what was communicated, who were listeners, and how they reacted. Using various natural language processing techniques, we are able to identify 7 main topics discussed by the Fed (monetary policy, economic growth, inflation, unemployment, financial risk, fiscal policy, and community) and 6 groups of the audience (economists, media, other academics, firm managers, financial sector, and the general public). We find that while the tweets related to central banking topics attract greater attention from Twitter users, only the extensive margin is economically meaningful. Among all groups of users, the media accounts are most active in engaging with the Fed via both replying to the Fed's messages and initiating a central banking-related conversation with the Fed. Further analysis shows that such media-Fed interactions are more likely to be noticed by other users.

Overall, the findings suggest that central bankers should take advantage of intermediated channels such as media to communicate with the wider public.

External guests are kindly requested to register by sending an informal email to Sven.Fischer@brunel.ac.uk