NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - President Bush Wednesday named two candidates to fill vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board who are macroeconomic experts with differing views on monetary policy.

As had been rumored for weeks, Bush nominated Ben Bernanke, 48, chairman of the economics department at Princeton University, and Donald Kohn, 59, chief secretary and economist at the central bank, to fill the two vacancies on the board that have existed for several months.

The experience of both men contrasts sharply with that of Bush's prior two appointments to the board, who had backgrounds in banking.

"Bush has done a good job of using his free hand to break from a narrow group of selections in terms of background," said Tom Schlesinger, executive director of the Financial Markets Center, a research firm that follows the Fed, which tries to stimulate U.S. economic growth while keeping inflation in check.

Bernanke is in favor of the Fed announcing and pursuing specific targets for inflation, a policy Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan rejects. Bernanke has been nominated to fill a term that ends on Jan. 31, 2004.

Kohn, on the other hand, has long been considered Greenspan's right-hand man and could be more likely to support a continuation of the policy course ordinarily preferred by Greenspan, that of using anecdotal evidence and a wide array of economic data to set interest rates. Kohn has been nominated to a full 14-year term.

The addition of both men to the board could set the stage for lively debates about the future course of monetary policy.

"It will come at a really interesting time because the Fed has been so much more successful in recent years than central banks in countries that favored a more rule-oriented approach," Schlesinger said. "One has to wonder why the Fed would abandon the approach that has worked so well."

Kohn's similarity and closeness to Greenspan could also make him another potential replacement for the Fed chairman. John Taylor, the economist who set the standard for the "rule-oriented" approach, is often mentioned as the next likely Fed chair.

Fed policy makers met Tuesday and decided, unsurprisingly, to leave their target for short-term interest rates alone.

The Fed's Board of Governors, which manages the Fed system, consists of seven members but has operated with at least one vacancy for more than two years. The board needs four members for a quorum. With five, at least one member can be traveling or unable to make a meeting without affecting the board's work.

In July 2001, Bush nominated Mark Olson, former president of the American Bankers Association, to fill one of two slots open at the time. He nominated Tennessee banker and economist Susan Schmidt Bies to fill a spot left by the resignation of Edward W. Kelley Jr. last June.

Both nominations were approved by U.S. lawmakers. But Fed Governor Laurence Meyer's term ended in January 2002, and he did not seek reappointment, leaving two board slots open again.

Greenspan was re-appointed in 2000 to a fourth four-year term that ends in June 2004, when he will be 78, giving Bush the opportunity to replace him as chairman. Some observers have speculated that Greenspan could retire as early as this year, however. Greenspan's separate term as a board member expires in 2006.

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Members of the Fed board are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They serve a full term of 14 years.

Fed interest rate cuts spur the economy by lowering short-term borrowing costs, putting more cash in the hands of consumers, who fuel two-thirds of the economy. The Fed cut rates 11 times in 2001 to help set the stage for a recovery from a recession that likely began in March 2001.

The Fed can also raise rates if it's worried about the economy growing too quickly and fueling inflation. But the Fed has left rates alone at three meetings in 2002, and a growing number of economists think it could leave rates undisturbed for much of the year, since inflation isn't perceived as a problem and the strength of the economic recovery is uncertain.