Abstract

In this article, we try to show in which way central bankers' biographies matter, by emphasizing a relationship between individual trajectories and decision-making inside institutions. With this purpose we present an analysis of the social characteristics of central bank governors, based on a prosopographical and quantitative inquiry. We construct a typology of central bank leaders according to their social and professional profiles (using an Ascending Hierarchical Classification). We then discuss the recent trends as regards central bankers' recruitments and profiles in the world. In the following section, we compare the profiles of central bank governors in the world to those of ECB governors since the creation of the institution (1999). It allows us to assess how specific Eurozone central bankers' characteristics are inside the global field of central banking, in a dynamic perspective. Then, we isolate the members of the Governing Council of the ECB, in order to test empirically the hypothesis of a statistical relationship between social trajectories and position-takings, using various indicators and a Geometric Data Analysis methodology, including inductive data analysis and logistic regression as part of a more general perspective. We find that there exists a notable and significant impact arising from the biographical backgrounds.