Regional economic conditions and monetary policy

We use county-level unemployment data and data derived from FOMC meeting transcripts to test the hypothesis that monetary policymakers are influenced by economic conditions in regions that they represent. The analysis confirms that regional conditions affect the policy preferences of Reserve Bank presidents. Regional conditions also appear to influence Governors, but the evidence is weaker. For all FOMC members, we find that national conditions matter more than regional conditions; however, we are unable to verify that the evolving regional composition of the Committee's voting membership has any effect on the adopted policy stance.