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on Payment Systems and Financial Technology |
| By: | Onkokame Mothobi |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the eect of regulatory policies on mobile retail prices. Using quarterly data for 8 African countries for the period 2010:Q4 to 2014:Q4 we estimate structural demand and supply equations. We nd that mobile termination rates (MTR) have significant positive impact on mobile retail prices. A decline in average MTR of 10% decreases average mobile retail prices by 2.5%. On the other hand, mobile number portability (MNP) has an insignicant eect on price and subscriptions in selected African countries. This may be due to inadequate implementation of MNP and consecutively low demand for porting numbers. The average market conduct in mobile telecommunications industry for selected African countries can be approximated by Cournot Nash equilibrium, while price elasticity of demand is on average -0.27. |
| Keywords: | mobile telephony, Regulation, market conduct |
| JEL: | L31 L43 L52 L96 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:662&r=pay |
| By: | Briglauer, Wolfgang; Cambini, Carlo; Melani, Sauro |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence on the migration from an “old” technology to a “new” technology, taking into account the impact that regulatory interventions on the old one might have on the incentives to invest and adopt the new one. This analysis has been applied to a sample of EU27 countries using panel data from 2004 to 2014 on the adoption, coverage and take-up rate of ultra-fast broadband infrastructures, whose development is one of the flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 programmes. Results show that a 1% increase in the regulated price to access the old technology increases the adoption and the investment on the new broadband technology by ~0.45% and ~0.47%. These effects are not homogeneous across countries and are weakened in Eastern European countries, where the existing old broadband infrastructures are less developed than in the rest of Europe. It has also been shown that the access price to old networks negatively affects the take-up rate of the new technology-based services, thus calling for the need of more specific and complementary demand side policy incentives to enhance service adoption. |
| JEL: | L43 L52 C26 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145480&r=pay |
| By: | Aluculesei, Alina-Cerasela |
| Abstract: | Tourism is a dynamic domain and sensitive to changes caused by globalization. It is modeled both by operators and tourists, being in a constant transformation. The presence of the Internet and using it constantly turns the distance from impediment in ordinary. Destinations that not long ago were regarded with suspicion today can be explored including through testimonials of tourists from around the world. This study addresses one of the most important changes among travel agencies due to globalization that is moving their activity online. The research is made on the travel agencies from Romania in 2013 and includes both general issues such as the existence of a website, consumer protection in the online environment, card payment possibility on the site, and particular aspects, such as spa deals, social offers and tourist information. |
| Keywords: | online payment; online travel; social tourism; spa offers; travel agency |
| JEL: | F6 F63 L83 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76826&r=pay |
| By: | Harker, Patrick T. (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | Some form of regulation is in the interest of the evolving fintech industry, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick T. Harker said in remarks at the Global Interdependence Center’s Payment Systems in the Internet Age conference |
| Keywords: | payment systems; internet |
| Date: | 2017–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpsp:130&r=pay |
| By: | Wouter Zant (VU University, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | I use the quasi experimental nature of the roll-out of the mobile phone network in Mozambique to estimate the impact of search costs on the dispersion of maize prices and transport costs. The introduction of mobile phone services from 1997 to 2009 explains a 4.5-11% percent reduction in price dispersion of maize prices, and a slightly larger reduction in per ton km transport costs. Apart from an improvement of the efficiency of maize markets, the evidence suggests that traders benefit by capturing increased rent income. Various sources of potential heterogeneity are identified: the reduction is larger for pairs connecting remote locations, for source markets with a low poverty head count and with a higher mobile phone coverage in neighbouring markets, and during drought periods. |
| Keywords: | search costs; transport costs; mobile phones; agricultural markets; maize prices; sub-Saharan Africa; Mozambique |
| JEL: | O13 O33 Q11 Q13 |
| Date: | 2017–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20170021&r=pay |
| By: | Nigel Dodd |
| Abstract: | This paper challenges the notion that Bitcoin is ‘trust-free’ money by highlighting the social practices, organizational structures and utopian ambitions that sustain it. At the paper’s heart is the paradox that if Bitcoin succeeds in its own terms as an ideology, it will fail in practical terms as a form of money. The main reason for this is that the new currency is premised on the idea of money as a ‘thing’ that must be abstracted from social life in order for to be protected from manipulation by bank intermediaries and political authorities. The image is of a fully mechanized currency that operates over and above social life. In practice, however, the currency has generated a thriving community around its political ideals, relies on a high degree of social organization in order to be produced, has a discernible social structure, and is characterized by asymmetries of wealth and power that not dissimilar from the mainstream financial system. Unwittingly, then, Bitcoin serves as a powerful demonstration of the relational character of money. |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:69229&r=pay |
| By: | Claudio Sardoni (Department of Social Sciences and Economics, Sapienza University of Rome); Antonio Bianco (Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali ed Economiche, Sapienza University of Rome (Italy).) |
| Abstract: | The recently expanding macro-financial literature is facing the analytical challenge to analyse the working of modern market economies without losing touch with the factual role played by financial institutions. Mainstream macroeconomic models that embody a financial sector are characterized by the understanding of banks as intermediaries of loanable funds (deposit-taking paving the way for loan extension). This approach to banking is increasingly considered as a major flaw in macroeconomic thinking. The Post-Keynesian theory of inside money creation is gaining momentum even in mainstream circles. The present article highlights the key differences of these alternative doctrines from a money supply perspective, so to stress the key aspects of the monetary dimension of the so-called financial cycle and the fact that monetary policy alone has no impact on aggregate expenditure. |
| Keywords: | Financial Cycle, Money Supply, Banking, Inside Money, Liquidity Risk. |
| JEL: | E44 E51 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:saq:wpaper:3/17&r=pay |
| By: | Filitz, Rainer; Henkel, Joachim; Ohnemus, Jörg |
| Abstract: | Digital designs - that is, designs for display on electronic screens - have recently burst onto the intellectual property (IP) stage. While in the U.S. a smattering of legal studies have recently addressed the question of digital design as a copyright-, trademark- and patent-eligible subject matter, a European perspective is still lacking in the literature. This study provides an overview of basic legal background to the protection of digital designs in Europe, explores firms'actual digital design protection behaviors, and highlights some important practical and doctrinal issues that warrant further study |
| Keywords: | digital designs,intellectual property,RCD,interviews,survey |
| JEL: | K11 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:17007&r=pay |
| By: | Peukert, Christian; Aguiar, Luis; Claussen, Jörg |
| Abstract: | Taking down copyright-infringing websites is a way to reduce consumption of pirated media content and increase licensed consumption. We analyze the consequences of the shutdown of the most popular German video streaming website - kino.to - in June 2011. Using individual-level clickstream data, we find that the shutdown led to significant but short-lived declines in piracy levels. The existence of alternative sources of unlicensed consumption, coupled with the rapid emergence of new platforms, led the streaming piracy market to quickly recover from the intervention and to limited substitution into licensed consumption. Our results therefore present evidence of a high elasticity of supply in the online movie piracy market, together with relatively low switching costs for users of copyright infringing platforms. The fact that the post-shutdown market structure was much more fragmented - and therefore more resistant to future interventions - further questions the effectiveness of the intervention. |
| JEL: | L82 K42 L11 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145490&r=pay |
| By: | Takashi Inaba; Mariagrazia Squicciarini |
| Abstract: | This work proposes a definition of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based on the technology classes of the International Patent Classification (IPC) in which patents are classified. This new taxonomy, called the “J tag”, aligns with the definitions of the ICT sector (2007) and of ICT products (2008) put forward by the OECD, and stems from the in-depth knowledge of Japan Patent Office experts, as well of experts from the Intellectual Property (IP) Offices participating in the OECD-led IP Task Force. Expert judgment of patent class content, relevance for ICT-related products, completeness and accuracy are the principles guiding the inclusion of IPC classes in the “J tag” taxonomy. ICT technologies are subdivided into 13 areas defined with respect to the specific technical features and functions they are supposed to accomplish (e.g. mobile communication), and details provided about the ways in which technologies relate to ICT products. |
| Date: | 2017–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2017/1-en&r=pay |