Exploring Lived Experiences and Meaning-Making in Interest Rate Policy Decisions During Geopolitical Crises
Main Article Content
Abstract
Monetary policy decision-making has traditionally been studied through macroeconomic models and institutional analysis, yet the human experiences of policy actors remain underexplored. In high-stakes environments shaped by geopolitical uncertainty, central bank officials face complex emotional and ethical pressures that influence their decision-making processes. However, limited research has examined how these individuals experience and assign meaning to such conditions. This study investigates how central bank leaders interpret and navigate interest rate decisions during geopolitical crises using a descriptive phenomenological approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight senior officials from central banking institutions across Southeast Asia, and data were analyzed thematically to identify essential structures of meaning. The findings reveal three core themes: the burden of policy dilemmas under uncertainty, the balancing of national and international mandates, and the development of emotional resilience in institutional contexts. These insights uncover the psychological and ethical dimensions of policy leadership that are often overlooked in conventional research. The results suggest that phenomenological inquiry offers a more holistic and human-centered understanding of monetary governance, providing valuable implications for leadership development and future research on decision-making in global finance.
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Alogoskoufis, G., & Giannoulakis, S. (2025). Alternative monetary policy rules in an imperfectly competitive DSGE model with asymmetric price adjustment. Journal of Economic Asymmetries, 31. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeca.2024.e00397
Altavilla, C., Boucinha, M., Burlon, L., Giannetti, M., & Schumacher, J. (2025). Central bank liquidity reallocation and bank lending: Evidence from the tiering system. Journal of Financial Economics, 168. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2025.104058
Anwar, R., & Guha, A. (2023). A Study on Dynamics of Food Inflation in India. Indian Economic Journal, 71(5), 783–804. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1177/00194662231186555
Arce, Ó., Nuño, G., Thaler, D., & Thomas, C. (2020). A large central bank balance sheet? Floor vs corridor systems in a New Keynesian environment. Journal of Monetary Economics, 114, 350–367. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2019.05.001
Asai, M., Peiris, S., McAleer, M., & Allen, D. E. (2020). Cointegrated Dynamics for a Generalized Long Memory Process: Application to Interest Rates. Journal of Time Series Econometrics, 12(1). Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1515/jtse-2018-0024
Bongiovanni, A., Reghezza, A., Santamaria, R., & Williams, J. (2021). Do negative interest rates affect bank risk-taking? Journal of Empirical Finance, 63, 350–364. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jempfin.2021.07.008
Boungou, W., & Mawusi, C. (2023). Bank lending margins in a negative interest rate environment. International Journal of Finance and Economics, 28(1), 886–901. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2455
Caballero, R. J., & Simsek, A. (2020). A Risk-Centric Model of Demand Recessions and Speculation. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 135(3), 1493–1566. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaa008
Caballero, R. J., & Simsek, A. (2021). A Model of Endogenous Risk Intolerance and LSAPs: Asset Prices and Aggregate Demand in a “COVID-19” Shock. Review of Financial Studies, 34(11), 5522–5580. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhab036
Correia, I., De Fiore, F., Teles, P., & Tristani, O. (2021). Credit subsidies. Journal of Monetary Economics, 118, 2–14. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2018.12.002
Donadelli, M., Paradiso, A., & Riedel, M. (2019). A Quasi Real-Time Leading Indicator for the EU Industrial Production. Manchester School, 87(4), 510–542. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1111/manc.12233
Dong, F., Miao, J., & Wang, P. (2020). Asset bubbles and monetary policy. Review of Economic Dynamics, 37, S68–S98. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2020.06.003
Fife, W. (2020). Counting as a Qualitative Method: Grappling with the Reliability Issue in Ethnographic Research (p. 140). Springer International Publishing; Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34803-8
Galimberti, J. K. (2019). An approximation of the distribution of learning estimates in macroeconomic models. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 102, 29–43. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jedc.2019.03.003
Girotti, M., Nguyen, B., & Sahuc, J.-G. (2022). A tiering rule to balance the impact of negative policy rates on banks. Finance Research Letters, 47. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102589
Gunji, H. (2025). Did the BOJ’s negative interest rate policy increase bank lending? Japanese Economic Review, 76(1), 91–120. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42973-023-00150-5
Gunji, H., & Miyazaki, K. (2021). An industrial-organization approach to conventional and unconventional monetary policy. Economic Notes, 50(3). Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecno.12190
Hayashi, N. (2021). BOJ’s non-traditional monetary policies and their effects on the Japanese economy: Comments and views on Harada. International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, 15(1), 41–53. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42495-020-00047-w
Hirose, Y. (2020). AN ESTIMATED DSGE MODEL with A DEFLATION STEADY STATE. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 24(5), 1151–1185. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1365100518000743
Inaba, K.-I. (2020). A global look into stock market comovements. Review of World Economics, 156(3), 517–555. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10290-019-00370-1
Ito, T. (2020). Do long-term swap rate and stock price give an impact on Japanese Real Estate Investment Trust market under quantitative and qualitative easing and negative interest rate policy? Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, 31(3), 15–19. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22431
Ito, T. (2022). Credit default swap and Japanese Government Bond markets under negative interest rate policy. Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, 33(2), 7–12. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22545
Kamada, K., Kurosaki, T., Miura, K., & Yamada, T. (2022). Central bank policy announcements and changes in trading behavior: Evidence from bond futures high frequency price data. North American Journal of Economics and Finance, 59. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.najef.2021.101569
Kowalewski, P., & Shirai, S. (2023). A quarter of a century of the BoJ’s efforts to overcome liquidity trap. Bank i Kredyt, 54(4), 335–364. Scopus.
Kundu, S., Kumari, A., & Rawat, D. (2023). Cross-border Capital Flows and Sudden Stops: Lessons from Emerging Market Economies. Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, 44(2), 1–23. Scopus.
Lee, K.-S., & Werner, R. A. (2023). Are lower interest rates really associated with higher growth? New empirical evidence on the interest rate thesis from 19 countries. International Journal of Finance and Economics, 28(4), 3960–3975. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2630
Molyneux, P., Reghezza, A., Thornton, J., & Xie, R. (2020). Did Negative Interest Rates Improve Bank Lending? Journal of Financial Services Research, 57(1), 51–68. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10693-019-00322-8
Molyneux, P., Reghezza, A., & Xie, R. (2019). Bank margins and profits in a world of negative rates. Journal of Banking and Finance, 107. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2019.105613
Muse, B. O. (2024). Differential Impact of Interest Rate Regimes on Savings in Nigeria: New Empirical Evidence. African Journal of Business and Economic Research, 19(2), 145–164. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.31920/1750-4562/2024/v19n2a7
Ni, J., & Ruan, J. (2024). Contagion effects of external monetary shocks on systemic financial risk in China: Evidence from the Euro area and Japan. North American Journal of Economics and Finance, 70. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.najef.2023.102055
Piergallini, A. (2025). Corporate finance and interest rate policy. Journal of Macroeconomics, 85. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmacro.2025.103698
Pirgmann, M., & Wawrosz, P. (2024). Assessing the Effective Lower Bound in the Context of Introducing the Digital Euro. Economies, 12(6). Scopus. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies12060143
Pivetti, M. (2024). A Note on the Real Effects of Interest Rate Policy and Its Impact on Inflation. Review of Political Economy, 36(2), 600–609. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2023.2238997
Polański, Z., & Szadkowski, M. (2021). An accounting-based model of seigniorage, and recent monetary developments. Bank i Kredyt, 52(5), 391–436. Scopus.
Rostagno, M., Altavilla, C., Carboni, G., Lemke, W., Motto, R., & Saint-Guilhem, A. (2025). An options-based impact study of the negative interest rate policy and forward guidance. Journal of Monetary Economics, 152. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2025.103776
Savona, R. (2022). Bank business models, negative policy rates, and prudential regulation. Annals of Finance, 18(3), 355–392. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10436-021-00397-1
van Lill, D. (2024). Changes in monetary policy implementation over time. Journal for Studies in Economics and Econometrics, 48(1), 62–86. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1080/03796205.2023.2273489
Wang, T. (2019). Banks’ wealth, banks’ creation of money, and central banking. International Journal of Central Banking, 15(3), 89–135. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3171408
Xin, B., & Jiang, K. (2023). Central bank digital currency and the effectiveness of negative interest rate policy: A DSGE analysis. Research in International Business and Finance, 64. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2023.101901
Yang, J. D. X. (2023). Cross-sector comovements and policy impact in the COVID-19 stock market: A dynamic factor approach. Global Finance Journal, 56. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfj.2022.100772