Journal of Macroeconomics

Using new data on the term in office of central bank governors for a large set of countries for 1970–2005, we estimate a model for the probability that a central bank governor is tina where the actual average term in office of the governor of the central bank during the 1980s was about a year, which deviates substantially from the period as foreseen in the central bank law in place at the time. In fact, whenever a new 0164-0704/ $- see front matter 2010 Published by Elsevier Inc