The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate

the reaction of the European Central Bank as a crisis fighting institution and the

importance of central bank personalities in policy execution. Accordingly, this paper aims

at investigating to what extent the policy-making of the ECB during the crisis has been

influenced by Trichet’s and Draghi’s different personalities. Based on Friedman’s hypothesis

that “accidents of personality” have a great impact on the functioning of a rulebased

institution, we find that the clear differences in policy-making between Trichet and

Draghi can be explained by specific features of their respective personalities. Institutions

matter, but so do personalities.