Influence of regional cycles and personal background on FOMC members' preferences and disagreement

This paper sheds some new light on the determinants of FOMC members' monetary policy preferences. For that purpose, we use a new dataset of macroeconomic indicators for the Fed districts, as well as preferences revealed by FOMC members in the Transcripts, to compute a desired interest rate for each individual member. First, we find that FOMC members react to the regional unemployment rate. Second, individuals holding a Master or Bachelor degree, and issued from either the central bank, or from the private or public sector have a higher propensity to disagree on the dovish side, while women tend to disagree on the hawkish side. These findings provide further insights for central bank watchers about the upcoming policy decisions that are likely to be implemented by the FOMC, following the composition of its committee and the evolution of regional cycles.