Central Bank Economic Transparency and Managerial Learning

Abstract Central banks increasingly disclose their private information regarding the economy’s current and future state (CBET). Consistent with CBET shifting investors’ collection and pricing of aggregate-level (where managers do not have an information advantage) toward firm-level (where managers do have an information advantage) information, we find that CBET reduces managers’ learning from stock price. The results are (1) pronounced when firms do not provide guidance and when noise trading in firms’ stock is low, and (2) robust to using the 2013–2014 amendments to the Bank of England’s Inflation Report as an exogenous shock. Additional evidence suggests that CBET lowers investment efficiency. (JEL E22, E52, M41)