INDEPENDENCE, CREDIBILITY, AND MONETARY STABILITY: A BIBLIOMETRIC MAPPING OF CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE RESEARCH

Abstract

This study attempt mapping the development, intellectual structure, and research orientation of central bank independence (CBI) literature using bibliometric and network analysis. Unlike previous studies that have focused on empirical relationships between CBI and macroeconomic outcomes, this study offers a systematic overview of the evolution of the field, the actors that have influenced the evolution of the field, and the themes that dominate the current research agenda. Data were obtained from the Scopus database, a total of 247 documents published from 2016 to 2026 were analyzed using Harzing’s Publish or Perish, Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer. The analysis includes publication and citation trends, document types and sources, language distribution, contributions from countries and institutions, productive authors, influential documents, source titles, co-authorship patterns, citation structures, and keyword co-occurrence networks. The results show that the CBI research has grown substantially since 2019, with the maximum of the publications and citations in 2025. The dataset is mostly made up of journal articles and English language publications. The most productive author is J. de Haan and the most influential document is Garriga (2016) article Central Bank Independence in the World: A New Data Set. At country level, the United States, United Kingdom and Germany are the top contributors. Institutions such as University of Groningen, CESifo, International Monetary Fund, Bocconi University, CEPR and University of Ghana play an important role in the field. The network analysis shows that the CBI literature revolves around the themes of monetary policy, inflation, central banking, political economy, accountability, fiscal policy, financial crisis, governance, and institutional credibility. This study provides a comprehensive research map of CBI studies and identifies influential contributors, documents, countries, institutions and emerging directions for future research.