The independent presidents and their research departments also help ensure that a wide variety of perspectives are brought to the table when we make policy. This helps prevent monetary policy from adopting a “groupthink” mentality. The separate teams of research economists in the Reserve Banks also ensure a useful diversity in academic pursuit.
Research teams at the Banks have advanced many economic concepts that have been adopted by the Federal Reserve System, such as the value of inflation targeting or the latest use of economic modeling. This has led to centers of excellence in the Districts, such as the Payment Cards Center and the Real-Time Data Research Center here in Philadelphia.