Gender diversity and monetary policy

Gender diversity matters in many respects. Obviously. Does gender diversity also matter in monetary policy? This is perhaps not so obvious. In the present SUERF Policy Note, the authors refer to some recent studies, which document some impact of gender diversity on monetary policy making. Data from the US FOMC reveals different patterns of voting behavior for respectively women and men. Women tend in this study more often than men to have a dovish attitude i.e. being in favor of an active monetary policy. Results from studies of central bankers in other OECD countries are somewhat different. A 2016-study by the three authors applying an index of gender diversity suggests that presence of women in central bank boards can be associated with a more hawkish approach to monetary policy making

Parma tracheostomy technique: a hybrid approach to tracheostomy between classical surgical and percutaneous tracheostomies.

Objectives: The aim of our study is to compare the classical surgical tracheostomy (TT) technique with a modified surgical technique designed and created by the cardiothoracic surgery staff of our department to reduce surgical trauma and postoperative complications. This modified technique combines features of percutaneous tracheostomy and surgical tracheostomy avoiding the use of specialized tools, which are required in percutaneous tracheostomy Methods: From October 2008 to March 2014 we performed 67 tracheostomies using this New Modified Surgical Technique (NMST) and 56 tracheostomy with the Classical Surgical Technique (CST). We collected data about the early clinical complications, deaths tracheostomy-related, deaths due to other complications and the presence of late TT’s complications was performed by a telephone follow-up. SPSS software (IMB version 21) was used for the statistical analysis. Categorical data were treated with chi square test and continuous data were treated with “t” test for independent samples. Results: NMST group had a significant lower number of early complications (p = 0,005) compared to CST group (5 vs. 15). In-Hospital mortality was significantly higher in CST group (18 deaths vs. 4 in NMST group, p = 0,001) but we registered only one case of tracheostomy-related mortality in CST group (p = 0,280). We did not note other differences between the two groups regarding short or mid-long term complications. Conclusions: In our experience the NMST demonstrated to be easily safe and reproducible with an amount of early, mid- and long-term complications similar to the classical surgical technique; furthermore the aesthetic results of the procedure appear similar to those of percutaneous tracheostom