Voting Transparency and the Optimal Remuneration of Central Bankers in a Monetary Union∗

We examine whether the central bank council of a monetary union should publish its voting records when members are appointed by national politicians. We show that the publication of voting records lowers overall welfare if the private benefits of holding office are not too high. High wages of central bankers lower overall welfare under opacity, as they induce European central bankers to care more about being re-appointed than about beneficial policy outcomes. We show that opacity and low wages jointly guarantee the optimal welfare level. Moreover, we suggest that wage setting for central bankers should be centralized on a European level