Impact of regional heterogeneity on monetary policy transmission, perception of Bank of Russia on Telegram, and financial culture index: new issue of Russian Journal of Money and Finance
The third issue of the scholarly quarterly Russian Journal of Money and Finance of 2025 has been published. The new issue covers such topics as the impact of regional economic inequality on the efficiency of the monetary policy transmission mechanism, the opportunities for using social networks to assess the public perception of the Bank of Russia, and methods to measure the financial culture.
Russian regions differ in terms of both the structure of the economy and the structure of household incomes and assets. Therefore, the impact of monetary policy measures on inflation may also differ by region. Valeria Zvereva (Bank of Russia; HSE University) believes that a stronger response of inflation to monetary policy shocks is characteristic of regions with a higher share of wages in the income structure and a larger number of households with a high propensity to save and with access to credit. Both advantages and constraints of one region are transmitted to others through a common labour market, trade, and similar patterns of consumer behaviour.
The population often receives information about monetary policy and the Bank of Russia’s actions through information intermediaries, rather than directly from the regulator. Telegram channels are among such popular information platforms. Alisa Polekhina and Anna Guseva (Bank of Russia) constructed a Bank of Russia perception index based on data from around 1,400 major Telegram channels dedicated to the Bank of Russia. The index takes into account the tone of the news concerning the Bank of Russia’s activity. The index shows that this news is predominantly neutral. However, Telegram channels focused on politics are, on average, more negative, whereas the perception of the Bank of Russia’s actions in economic channels has improved significantly over time. The index notably correlates with survey data on the level of public confidence in the Bank of Russia and with household and business inflation expectations.
Financial culture is a set of people’s values, attitudes, and behavioural practices. It may have a direct impact on the country’s economic development. Improving financial culture may potentially foster economic growth. How to measure financial culture to understand the scope of its potential? Alexander Auzan and his colleagues from Lomonosov Moscow State University propose definitions of financial culture components and discuss the methodology to assess it.
The new issue of the Russian Journal of Money and Finance (No. 3, 2025) is available on its website.