Mapping the CBDC Discourse: A Pilot Study in Automated Content Analysis of Policy Documents
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) represent a transformative development, yet the discourse surrounding them is often qualitative and fragmented. This paper proposes and pilots a novel method for this task, employing automated quantitative content analysis to systematically process official documents. Based on an exploratory analysis of a small, curated corpus of seven documents, our preliminary findings illustrate a strong institutional consensus toward a fully identified, two-tier CBDC. Furthermore, the analysis identifies the “Innovation-Privacy Paradox”—a statistical relationship highlighting the tension between advanced features and surveillance risks. This study’s primary contribution is the demonstration of a scalable methodology and the presentation of tentative findings that warrant further investigation with a larger, more diverse dataset.
Keywords: Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), Quantitative Content Analysis, Monetary Sovereignty, Financial Surveillance, Payment Systems, System Design
