Glenn Stevens has published an op-ed in the latest edition of the Fairfax-owned Australian Financial Review. Now the op-ed was an outstanding little piece reflecting on the history of the RBA and the evolution of monetary policy in Australia. It was also accompanied by an excellent article on the RBA's sponsorship of Australian artists over the last circa 100 years.
My issue with the op-ed is this: it was pay-walled and only available to Fairfax subscribers. Surely any articles published by the Governor of the RBA, which is a non-private and taxpayer-funded institution, should be made freely available to the public?
This is certainly the approach the RBA applies with commendable vigilance to all speeches and public commentary produced by its executive. Indeed, the RBA is generally world-class when it comes to the rapid and efficient electronic dissemination of research and commentary.
This is certainly the approach the RBA applies with commendable vigilance to all speeches and public commentary produced by its executive. Indeed, the RBA is generally world-class when it comes to the rapid and efficient electronic dissemination of research and commentary.
Now I don't think that the Governor deliberately intended that his utterances would be available exclusively to AFR subscribers, which would be a bizarre aim, to say the least. And there are many precedents whereby AFR contributors make their material immediately accessible to the public.
Interestingly, the former Deputy Governor of the RBA, Dr Stephen Grenville, who is now a fellow at the Lowy Institute, embraces precisely this principle. He writes a regular economics column for the Fin, which is concurrently published on the Lowy Institute's website. And a good thing that is too. Since his resignation from a long and distinguished career at the RBA, Stephen has emerged as one of our most important economic analysts. It is critical that the public at large has free access to his writings.
Another example of this principle is the premier economics portal, VoxEU.org, which regularly publishes op-eds from leading academic researchers around the world. These are then faithfully recycled in mainstream pay-walled publications, such as the AFR.
Glenn Stevens' most recent contribution was an important addition to our understanding of RBA history. The accompanying article on the RBA's sponsorship of the arts would not have been possible without significant RBA cooperation. It was very clear from Stevens' piece that he was engaging in public advocacy on behalf of the Bank, which, as I have observed many times before, occupies a curious and sometime awkward position in our society. The RBA understandably takes strategic steps to protect and strengthen its policymaking franchise, which was only solidified in its current incarnation over the last decade or two.
It should, therefore, be sympathetic to the argument that both the public and the RBA would benefit from it insisting that all articles written by RBA officers are made freely available online (this could be easily achieved through its own website, which has been recently revised). And they could make a start with the Governor's latest op-ed and the associated article that relied on direct RBA support.
