The paper, by means of panel data analysis, reexamines the empirical regularities strongly advocated by Alesina and Summers (1993), i.e., that (1) central bank independence and inflation are negatively correlated in industrialized countries; and that (2) central bank independence and real growth are not correlated in industrialized countries. The analysis here shows that both regularities become unstable when stricter conditions are imposed, and have not proved to be robust. Therefore, one may conclude that Alesina and Summers' results have not yet provided a reliable basis for policy recommendations.