Professor Michael McMahon, in collaboration with Lovisa Reiche, recently presented their research “Communicating Broadly and Effectively” to a mixed audience of public and private sector stakeholders, including representatives from BlackRock.
Drawing on more than twenty years of data from the Bank of England’s Inflation Attitudes Survey (2001–2023), the study investigates how gender differences shape how people understand and respond to central bank communication. The authors find that women report lower knowledge of the Bank and greater uncertainty about inflation. However, once differences in access to traditional news sources are taken into account, these gaps largely disappear.
The findings highlight how communication channels, not capability, drive differences in economic understanding. They point to a need for central banks to reach audiences through more inclusive and accessible forms of communication, broadening the ways in which people engage with monetary policy and its wider implications for households and the economy.
For the Centre for Quantitative Diversity Studies, this work reinforces the importance of examining how information design and institutional communication can unintentionally reproduce inequalities in economic participation. By identifying who is heard, and who is reached, research like this helps build the evidence base for more equitable, data-driven policymaking.
