Data source: Ana Carolina Garriga
The Central Bank Independence Dataset is the most comprehensive data set on de jure central bank independence (CBI) available to date. The 2025 version of this dataset updates Garriga 2016 for statutory central bank independence. It includes country-year observations covering 192 countries between 1970 and 2023. This represents a 46% extension in the coverage of the original data release.
The dataset identifies the creation of central banks (9,123 observations) and statutory reforms affecting CBI and their direction (9,109 observations). It codes four dimensions of CBI: personnel independence, central bank’s objectives, policy formulation, and limits on lending. These variables are scored from 0 (no independence) to 1 (maximum independence) and aggregated into two overall CBI indices following Cukierman, Webb, and Neyapti (1992) coding criteria. This version of the dataset introduces a regional diffusion variable, constructed as the yearly average of CBI weighted index (lvaw_garriga) in the following regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, Africa and Middle East, Eastern Europe and former Soviet countries, and Western Europe and North America.
When using this dataset, please cite as:
(Garriga, 2025)
(Garriga, 2016)
Browse variables and select them for download.
cbi_cbiu
CBI unweighted index: Raw average of the four components: Chief Executive Officer, Objectives, Policy Formulation and Limitations on lending to the government. It ranges from 0 (minimum) to 1 (maximum ...
cbi_cbiw
CBI weighted index: Weighted average of the four components (weights between parentheses), following Cukierman, Webb and Neyapti's (1992) criteria: Chief Executive Officer (0.20), Objectives (0.15), P ...
cbi_cceo
Component 1: Chief executive officer. Weighted average of the following variables (weights between parentheses): Term of office of CEO (0.25), Who appoints the CEO (0.25), Provisions for dismissal of ...
cbi_cll
Component 4: Limitations on lending to the government. Weighted average of the following variables (weights between parentheses): Limitations on advances (0.30); Limitations on securitized lending (0. ...
cbi_cobj
Component 2: Objectives. Central bank objectives as stated in the law (coding between parentheses): Price stability is the major or only objective, and in case of conflict with other objectives, the C ...
cbi_cpol
Component 3: Policy formulation. Weighted average of the following variables (weights between parentheses): Who formulates monetary policy (0.25); Who has the final decision in monetary policy (0.50), ...
cbi_create
1 indicates the year of the law creating the central bank, 0 otherwise.
cbi_dec
1 indicates the year of a reform that decreased CBI, according to the CBI weighted index, 0 otherwise
cbi_difreg
The regional diffusion variable in the dataset represents the regional averages of central bank independence (CBI) scores. These averages are calculated for specific regions: Latin America and the Car ...
cbi_dir
Effect of the central bank reform on the CBI weighted index: 1 indicates an increase in CBI; 0 indicates no changes in the level of CBI; 1 indicates the presence of a central bank reform that increase ...
cbi_inc
1 indicates the year of a reform that increased CBI, according to the CBI weighted index, 0 otherwise.
cbi_ref
1 indicates the year of a reform that affects CBI, 0 otherwise.
cbi_reg
Indicates whether the central bank is a regional organization (1), or a national central bank (0).