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on Payment Systems and Financial Technology |
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Issue of 2020‒03‒16
29 papers chosen by |
| By: | Batista, Catia (Universidade Nova de Lisboa); Vicente, Pedro C. (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) |
| Abstract: | Who uses mobile money? What is mobile money used for? This paper describes the mobile money adoption patterns following the experimental introduction of mobile money for the first time in rural areas of Southern Mozambique. We use a combination of administrative and household survey data to characterize early and late adopters, as well as their mobile money usage patterns during the three years after mobile money was introduced. We find that a large proportion of the individuals who were offered mobile money services actively adopted this technology. Adopters of mobile money (and early adopters in particular) are more educated than non-adopters, and they are also more likely to already hold a bank account. Positive self-selection of mobile money adopters raises questions about the effectiveness of mobile money as a tool for financial inclusion. |
| Keywords: | fintech, mobile money, technology adoption, self-selection, financial inclusion, financial deepening, Mozambique, Africa |
| JEL: | O16 O33 G20 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12934&r=all |
| By: | Decoster,Xavier Stephane; Lara Ibarra,Gabriel; Mendiratta,Vibhuti; Santacroce,Marco |
| Abstract: | Djibouti is very well placed, as a landing site of undersea fiber optic cables, to benefit from the digital economy. However, the prevalence of a single national telecom operator in the country has stifled service delivery and innovation in the telecom sector. Mobile broadband coverage and access to internet in Djibouti in 2018 remains below that of many Sub-Saharan African countries. This paper simulates the impact of the introduction of competition on the telecom sector's prices and its implications for households'welfare. The analysis finds important gains in welfare among current users of telecom services, with the largest gains going to the richest households. On the extensive margin, the analysis also finds a higher likelihood of take up of telecom services across the consumption distribution but skewed toward the rich. More work is needed to understand the implications of changes in the telecom sector, especially as greater access may lead to more unequal access, at least in the short term. |
| Keywords: | Information Technology,Inequality,Telecommunications Infrastructure |
| Date: | 2019–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8850&r=all |
| By: | Axel Gautier; Joe Lamesch; |
| Abstract: | Over the period 2015-2017, the five giant technologically leading firms, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM) acquired 175 companies, from small start-ups to billion dollar deals. By investigating this intense M&A, this paper ambitions a better understanding of the Big Five’s strategies. To do so, we identify 6 different user groups gravitating around these multi-sided companies along with each company’s most important market segments. We then track their mergers and acquisitions and match them with the segments. This exercise shows that these five firms use M&A activity mostly to strengthen their core market segments but rarely to expand their activities into new ones. Furthermore, most of the acquired products are shut down post acquisition, which suggests that GAFAM mainly acquire firm’s assets (functionality, technology, talent or IP) to integrate them in their ecosystem rather than the products and users themselves. For these tech giants, therefore, acquisition appears to be a substitute for in-house R&D. Finally, from our check for possible “killer acquisitions”, it appears that just a single one in our sample could potentially be qualified as such. |
| Keywords: | mergers, GAFAM, platform, digital markets, competition policy, killer acquisition |
| JEL: | D43 K21 L40 L86 G34 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8056&r=all |
| By: | Asongu, Simplice A; Odhiambo, Nicholas M |
| Abstract: | This study assesses how enhancing information and communication technology (ICT) affects life insurance and non-life insurance in a panel of forty-eight African countries with data for the period 2004-2014. The adopted ICT dynamics are: mobile phone penetration, internet penetration and fixed broadband subscriptions. The empirical evidence is based on Generalized Method of Moments. The results show that enhancing mobile phone penetration and fixed broadband subscriptions has a positive net effect on life insurance consumption while enhancing fixed broadband subscriptions also has a positive net impact of on non-life insurance penetration. |
| Keywords: | Insurance; Information technology |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uza:wpaper:26327&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaoundé/Cameroon); Paul N. Acha-Anyi (Walter Sisulu University, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this research is to investigate the relevance of enhancing information and communication technology (ICT) on dynamics of total factor productivity (TFP) in 25 Sub-Saharan African countries using data covering the period 1980-2014. The empirical evidence is based on the Generalised Method of Moments. The following main findings are established. First, while enhancing ICT overwhelmingly has net positive effects on productivity, the corresponding marginal effects are negative. Second, anextended analysis is performed to establish thresholds for complementary policies. These thresholds are: 100 % mobile phone penetration for TFP; between 101.214 % and 101.419 % mobile phone penetration for welfare TFP and 15 % internet penetration for welfare real TFP. It follows that approximately 100% mobile penetration and 15% internet penetration are thresholds at which ICT should be complemented with other macroeconomic policies for favorable outcomes on productivity dynamics. Other policy implications are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Productivity; Information Technology; Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | E23 F21 F30 L96 O55 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exs:wpaper:20/008&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaounde, Cameroon) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the relevance of information and communication technology (ICT) in modulating the effect of education on life insurance and non-life insurance consumption in 48 African countries for the period 2004-2014. Education is measured with primary school, secondary school and tertiary school enrollments. ICT is measured with mobile phone, internet and broadband subscriptions. The empirical evidence is based on generalized method of moments. The following main findings are established. First, from the nexuses between education, ICT and life insurance, there are positive conditional effects from the interaction between: (i) broadband subscriptions and primary school enrollment; (ii) broadband subscriptions and secondary school enrollment and (iii) internet penetration and tertiary school enrollment. Second, from the nexuses between education, ICT and non-life insurance: (i) there is a negative net effect from the interactions between mobile phone penetration and primary education while positive net effects are apparent from the interactions between: mobile phone penetration and secondary school enrollment; secondary school enrollment and broadband subscriptions and; tertiary school enrollment and broadband subscriptions. |
| Keywords: | Education; Technology; Insurance |
| JEL: | I28 I20 I30 O16 O55 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abh:wpaper:19/048&r=all |
| By: | Doulas J. Cumming; Lars Hornuf |
| Abstract: | Peer-to-business lending refers to online platforms facilitating loans from individuals to smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We conjecture that easy-to-understand risk ratings conveyed by the platform play a pronounced role in influencing the borrowing success of SMEs and that more sophisticated financial information and adverse selection are largely absent in these markets. We introduce a dataset of 414 SME marketplace loans and 8,236 online loan days to test these propositions. The data examined provide strong support for the importance of simple platform ratings in influencing investor behavior, while the effect of more detailed financial information is less pronounced. |
| Keywords: | debt crowdfunding, entrepreneurial finance, digital platforms |
| JEL: | G21 G24 G32 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8100&r=all |
| By: | Michelle W. Bowman |
| Date: | 2020–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgsq:87530&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaounde, Cameroon); Joseph Nnanna (The Development Bank of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria); Paul N. Acha-Anyi (Walter Sisulu University, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | Purpose –This study investigates the role of ICT in modulating the effect of governance on insurance penetration in 42 sub-Saharan African countries using data for the period 2004-2014. Design/methodology/approach –Two insurance indicators are used in the analysis, namely: life insurance and non-life insurance. The three ICT modulating dynamics employed include: mobile phone penetration, internet penetration and fixed broadband subscriptions. Six governance channels are also considered, namely: political stability, “voice & accountability†, regulation quality, government effectiveness, the rule of law and corruption-control. The empirical evidence is based on generalized method of moments. Findings –The following main findings are established. First, mobile phone penetration does not significantly modulate governance channels to positively affect life insurance while it effectively complements “voice & accountability†to induce a positive net effect on non-life insurance. Second, internet penetration complements: (i) governance dynamics of political stability, government effectiveness and rule of law to induce positive net effects on life insurance: and (ii) corruption-control for an overall positive effect on non-life insurance. Third, the relevance of fixed broadband subscriptions in promoting life insurance is apparent via governance channels of regulation quality, government effectiveness and the rule of law while fixed broadband subscriptions do not induce significant overall net effects on non-life insurance though the conditional effects are overwhelmingly significant. Orginality/value – To the best our knowledge, studies on the relevance of ICT in promoting insurance consumption through governance channels are sparse, especially for a region such as sub-Saharan Africa where insurance penetration is low compared to other regions of the world. |
| Keywords: | Africa; ICT; Governance; Insurance |
| JEL: | G20 I28 I30 L96 O55 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abh:wpaper:19/043&r=all |
| By: | Constantinos Halkiopoulos (University of Patras [Patras]); Hera Antonopoulou (University of Patras [Patras]); Dimitrios Papadopoulos (University of Patras [Patras]); Ioanna Giannoukou (University of Patras [Patras]); Evgenia Gkintoni (UOC - University of Crete [Heraklion]) |
| Abstract: | Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide and in general, the Internet continues to gain importance in the tourism sector. The study focuses on exploration of knowledge of online booking systems and on the views of local students-users concerning the booking rate based on these online systems. Another perspective of this project is to investigate the decision-making process (emotion-focused) that they follow in order to choose a tourist destination via online booking systems. For the purposes of this study, three scales were administered E-WOM and Accommodation Scale, Emotion-Based Decision-Making Scale and Trait Emotional Intelligence Scale. Then, survey data were collected, preprocessed and analyzed based on Data Mining techniques evaluating the results. More specifically, classification and association algorithms were utilized to manage to describe hidden patterns. E-Tourism will continue to be oriented towards the consumers and the technology that surrounds them, providing dynamic communication in electronic business. |
| Keywords: | Online Booking Systems,Hotel Selection Factors,Expert System,e-Tourism |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02447741&r=all |
| By: | Ceballos, Francisco; Kramer, Berber |
| Abstract: | Production risk is pervasive in agriculture, yet smallholder farmers lack access to quality insurance. This is due to asymmetric information in markets for indemnity insurance, and high basis risk, limited trust, and poor understanding of index-based insurance. Digital technologies can help overcome these challenges by improving crop monitoring and yield prediction, allowing insurers to provide products that move towards indemnity insurance. Although this can potentially improve demand, it also comes at the risk of introducing adverse selection. We analyze this trade-off by eliciting willingness to pay for both index-based insurance and picture-based insurance (PBI) for visible crop damage through incentivized auctions with smallholder farmers in northwestern India. Participants reveal a higher willingness to pay for PBI than for index-based coverage. Although at commercial rates, demand remains low for either product, PBI improves demand at the subsidized premium levels maintained by India’s national insurance scheme. Moreover, we find no evidence of adverse selection. We conclude that digital technologies can facilitate a shift from index-based insurance to indemnity insurance. By reducing basis risk and strengthening trust and understanding, this can improve demand for crop insurance. |
| Keywords: | INDIA, SOUTH ASIA, ASIA, willingness to pay, technology, crop insurance, mobile equipment, risk, mobile telephones, photography, insurance, assessment, innovation, losses, digital technology, mobile technology, adverse selection, G22 Insurance, Insurance Companies, Actuarial Studies, O13 Economic Development: Agriculture, Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, Other Primary Product, O16 Economic Development: Financial Markets, Saving and Capital Investment, Corporate Finance and Governance, Q14 Agricultural Finance, |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1890&r=all |
| By: | Trucco, Daniela; Palma, Amalia |
| Abstract: | Este documento tiene como objetivo promover la reflexión sobre políticas públicas orientadas a la infancia y la adolescencia en la era digital. Es vital construir estrategias que permitan a las nuevas generaciones participar de manera plena en sus sociedades, aprovechando las oportunidades y disminuyendo riesgos en las vivencias de la infancia, adolescencia y juventud. El análisis presentado en este informe se basa principalmente en los resultados de investigación de la Red Kids Online América Latina en cuatro países: el Brasil, Chile, Costa Rica y el Uruguay. Esta red de investigación tiene su origen en la red Global Kids Online, que se desarrolló originalmente como una iniciativa de colaboración entre la Oficina de Investigación de UNICEF-Innocenti, la Escuela de Economía y Ciencia Política de Londres (London School of Economics and Political Sciences, LSE), y la red EU Kids Online de Europa, con el objetivo de recolectar información a nivel global en relación con los derechos, oportunidades y riesgos de la infancia en la era digital. La CEPAL buscó fortalecer el trabajo de esta Red a nivel de América Latina, potenciando el análisis comparativo y la perspectiva regional. En este informe también se contó con el apoyo de UNICEF y UNESCO. |
| Keywords: | NIÑOS, ADOLESCENTES, INTERNET, TECNOLOGIA DE LA INFORMACION, TECNOLOGIA DE LAS COMUNICACIONES, BRECHA DIGITAL, SOCIEDAD DE LA INFORMACION, POLITICA EDUCATIVA, ESCUELAS, INTEGRACION SOCIAL, SEGURIDAD DE LOS NIÑOS, DESARROLLO SOCIAL, CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, INTERNET, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY, DIGITAL DIVIDE, INFORMATION SOCIETY, EDUCATIONAL POLICY, SCHOOLS, SOCIAL INTEGRATION, CHILD SAFETY, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Date: | 2020–03–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col022:45212&r=all |
| By: | Imke C. Reimers; Joel Waldfogel |
| Abstract: | Digitization has led to product proliferation, straining traditional institutions for product discovery; but digitization has also spawned crowd-based rating systems. We compare the relative impacts of professional critics and crowd-based Amazon star ratings on consumer welfare in book publishing. We assemble data on daily Amazon sales ranks, star ratings, and prices for thousands of books in 2018, along with information on their professional reviews in several major outlets. Using various fixed effects and discontinuity-based empirical strategies, we estimate that a New York Times review raises estimated sales by 78 percent during the first five days following a review; and the elasticity of sales with respect to an Amazon star is about 0.75. We use these causal estimates to calibrate structural models of demand for measuring the welfare impact of pre-purchase information in a way that respects the distinction between ex ante and ex post utility. The aggregate effect of star ratings on consumer surplus is roughly 15 times the effect of traditional review outlets. Crowd-based information now accounts for the vast majority of pre-purchase information, but the absolute effects of professional reviews have not declined over time. |
| JEL: | L15 L81 L82 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26776&r=all |
| By: | Peng, Cong |
| Abstract: | Traditional retail involves traffic both from warehouses to stores and from consumers to stores. Ecommerce cuts intermediate traffic by delivering goods directly from the warehouses to the consumers. Although plenty of evidence has shown that vans that are servicing e-commerce are a growing contributor to traffic and congestion, consumers are also making fewer shopping trips using vehicles. This poses the question of whether e-commerce reduces traffic congestion. The paper exploits the exogenous shock of an influential online shopping retail discount event in China (similar to Cyber Monday), to investigate how the rapid growth of e-commerce affects urban traffic congestion. Portraying e-commerce as trade across cities, I specified a CES demand system with heterogeneous consumers to model consumption, vehicle demand and traffic congestion. I tracked hourly traffic congestion data in 94 Chinese cities in one week before and two weeks after the event. In the week after the event, intra-city traffic congestion dropped by 1.7% during peaks and 1% during non-peak hours. Using Baidu Index (similar to Google Trends) as a proxy for online shopping, I found online shopping increasing by about 1.6 times during the event. Based on the model, I find evidence for a 10% increase in online shopping causing a 1.4% reduction in traffic congestion, with the effect most salient from 9am to 11am and from 7pm to midnight. A welfare analysis conducted for Beijing suggests that the congestion relief effect has a monetary value of around 239 million dollars a year. The finding suggests that online shopping is more traffic-efficient than offline shopping, along with sizable knock-on welfare gains. |
| Keywords: | e-commerce; traffic congestion; heterogeneous consumers; shopping vehicle demand; air pollution |
| JEL: | R40 O30 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:103411&r=all |
| By: | Fan Fang; Waichung Chung; Carmine Ventre; Michail Basios; Leslie Kanthan; Lingbo Li; Fan Wu |
| Abstract: | The cryptocurrency market is amongst the fastest-growing of all the financial markets in the world. Unlike traditional markets, such as equities, foreign exchange and commodities, cryptocurrency market is considered to have larger volatility and illiquidity. This paper is inspired by the recent success of using deep learning for stock market prediction. In this work, we analyze and present the characteristics of the cryptocurrency market in a high-frequency setting. In particular, we applied a deep learning approach to predict the direction of the mid-price changes on the upcoming tick. We monitored live tick-level data from $8$ cryptocurrency pairs and applied both statistical and machine learning techniques to provide a live prediction. We reveal that promising results are possible for cryptocurrencies, and in particular, we achieve a consistent $78\%$ accuracy on the prediction of the mid-price movement on live exchange rate of Bitcoins vs US dollars. |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2003.00803&r=all |
| By: | Ochieng, Dennis O. |
| Abstract: | Little is known about farmgate prices in Malawi since data on the price trends are inconsistently collected. Yet this is important information for assessing the performance of agricultural markets. This report summarizes the findings from a pilot study to crowdsource farm gate prices for pigeon peas and chickpeas through the Farm Radio Trust (FRT) platform. In a series of radio ‘jingles’ and short message service (SMS) ‘pushes’, farmers were invited to report the prices and locations at which they had sold their pigeon peas and chickpeas to a toll-free number or using SMS. The phone numbers of farmers who responded were entered into a weekly draw with the possibility of winning a MWK25,000 coupon redeemable at a major agricultural input dealer. Between August 15, 2019 and November 1, 2019, 637 farmers called or sent short message service (SMS) texts to a toll-free number to report their sales, volume sold, and the type of buyer and location for sales of pigeon peas or chickpeas during the 2019 marketing season. At the end of the pilot, a follow up telephone survey of 468 of the 637 farmers was conducted to obtain detailed information on farmers’ production and marketing activities that were not captured in the initial phone calls. |
| Keywords: | MALAWI, SOUTHERN AFRICA, AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA, AFRICA, prices, legumes, pigeon peas, chickpeas, information and communication technologies (icts), farm radio trust, |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:masspr:reports2019&r=all |
| By: | Anja Rösner; Justus Haucap; Ulrich Heimeshoff |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of an EU-wide consumer protection regulation on consumer trust as well as consumer behavior. The Unfair Commercial Practice Directive (UCPD) was implemented by EU member states between 2007 and 2010. We utilize data from the Special and Flash Eurobarometer for the years between 2006 and 2014 and experts’ evaluation on consumer protection levels before the introduction of the regulation. This rich data set allows us to apply a difference-in-difference estimator with multiple time periods. We find a significant relationship between the introduction of the UCPD and consumer trust and cross-border purchases for countries with a low consumer protection level before the introduction of the UCPD. The relationship increases over time and stays then relatively constant. |
| Keywords: | consumer protection, UCPD, B2C, e-commerce, consumer trust, cross-border purchase |
| JEL: | D18 K20 L50 L51 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8081&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaounde, Cameroon); Joseph I. Uduji (University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria); Elda N. Okolo-Obasi (University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between social media and homicide in a cross section of 148 countries for the year 2012. The empirical evidence is based on Ordinary Least Squares, Tobit and Quantile regressions. The findings from Ordinary Least Squares and Tobit regressions show a negative relationship between Facebook penetration and the homicide rate. The negative relationship is driven by the 75th quantile of the conditional distribution of the homicide rate. The negative nexus is also driven by upper middle income countries and “Europe and Central Asia†. Three main implications are apparent when the findings are compared and contrasted. First, established findings from OLS and Tobit regressions are driven by countries with above-median levels of homicide. Second, such above-median countries are largely associated with upper middle income countries and nations in “Europe and Central Asia†. Third, modelling the relationship between Facebook penetration and homicide at the conditional mean of homicide may be misleading unless it is contingent on initial levels of homicide and tailored differently across income levels and regions of the world. |
| Keywords: | Homicide; Social media |
| JEL: | K42 D83 O30 D74 D83 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abh:wpaper:19/049&r=all |
| By: | Chryssoula Chatzigeorgiou (International Hellenic University); Evangelos Christou (International Hellenic University) |
| Abstract: | The study reported in this paper explores consumers' experiences with technology-assisted service encounters by investigating the applicability of Mick and Fournier's paradoxes of technology adoption to the social media as distribution channel in tourism scenario. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore consumers' experiences when using social media distribution services and the results were compared to those of Mick and Fournier. The findings are similar, suggesting that when consumers adopt online technology like social media, they can simultaneously develop positive and negative attitudes. The findings of this study also suggest that the nature of some of the paradoxes experienced by consumers may depend on the industry (tourism in this study) and the technology (social media in this study) being investigated. |
| Keywords: | Adoption of technological innovations,social media,distribution channels,consumer attitudes,tourism marketing |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02441401&r=all |
| By: | Chatzigeorgiou, Chryssoula; Christou, Evangelos |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a study that explores consumers’ experiences with technology-assisted service encounters by investigating the applicability of Mick and Fournier’s paradoxes of technology adoption to the social media as distribution channel in tourism scenario. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore consumers’ experiences when using social media distribution services and the results were compared to those of Mick and Fournier. The findings are similar, suggesting that when consumers adopt online technology like social media, they can simultaneously develop positive and negative attitudes. The findings of this study also suggest that the nature of some of the paradoxes experienced by consumers may depend on the industry (tourism in this study) and the technology (social media in this study) being investigated. |
| Keywords: | adoption of technological innovations, social media, distribution channels, consumer attitudes, tourism marketing |
| JEL: | L83 M31 O14 |
| Date: | 2019–10–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:98793&r=all |
| By: | Demirguc-Kunt,Asli; Hu,Bingjie; Klapper,Leora |
| Abstract: | Financial inclusion can help promote development. Inclusive financial systems allow people to invest in their education and health, save for retirement, capitalize on business opportunities, and confront shocks. In the Europe and Central Asia region, there is great variation in financial inclusion. In the euro area, most adults already own an account. Account ownership -- which is the first step of entry into the formal financial system has increased in the developing countries in the region, to 65 percent of the adult population from 45 percent in 2011. Tajikistan, Armenia, Moldova, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Georgia are among the countries that have seen the greatest increases globally, despite starting from a very low base. These experiences underline the potential role of digital payments in driving financial inclusion. Nevertheless, almost 30 percent of unbanked adults report lack of trust in banks as a barrier, which is nearly double the developing country average. And in some countries, gender and income gaps in account ownership remain significant. For example, the gender gap is close to 30 percentage points in Turkey, which is three times the average gap in developing countries. And in Romania, the gap between richest 60 percent of the population and poorest 40 percent is 33 percentage points, which is more than twice the average gap in developing countries. But there are many opportunities to increase account ownership. Over 80 percent of the unbanked have a mobile phone, and simply moving public sector pension payments into accounts would reduce the number of unbanked adults in the region by up to 20 million, including 8 million in the Russian Federation alone. Given the heterogeneity of experiences, there are ample opportunities for countries in the region to learn from each other, which lays out a rich research and operational agenda going forward. |
| Keywords: | Financial Sector Policy,Telecommunications Infrastructure,ICT Economics,Inequality,Educational Sciences |
| Date: | 2019–04–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8830&r=all |
| By: | Gomes, Francisco J.; Haliassos, Michael; Ramadorai, Tarun |
| Abstract: | There is increasing interest in applying lessons learned from household finance to the design of regulation, both within and across international borders. However, household financial decisions are complex, interdependent, and heterogeneous, and central to the functioning of the financial system. The authors present an overview of the rapidly expanding literature on household finance, beginning with the theory and empirics of asset market participation and asset allocation over the lifecycle. They discuss household choices in insurance markets, trading behavior, decisions on retirement saving, and financial choices by retirees and survey research on liabilities, including mortgage choice, refinancing, and default, and household behavior in unsecured credit markets, including credit cards and payday lending. They also connect the household to factors such as its social environment, cultural and hereditary factors, and financial literacy and suggest directions for future research. |
| Keywords: | household finance |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:imfswp:138&r=all |
| By: | Guglielmo Maria Caporale; Woo-Young Kang |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses co-movement between Bitcoin exchanges in 34 major countries around the world and the US (the global benchmark) over the period January 24, 2011 - January 7, 2019. More specifically, we run IV regressions to investigate the importance of cultural factors (such as tightness, individualism, trust and risk-taking) following an earlier study by Eun et al. (2015) which had shed light on their importance to explain stock co-movement within individual countries. The results suggest that markets in tighter, more individualistic, trustful and risk-taking societies are more tightly linked to the US one. Further, it appears that culturally looser, collectivistic, trustful and risk-taking countries are more likely to shut down their Bitcoin exchanges compared to other countries. These findings confirm our priors. |
| Keywords: | Bitcoin exchanges, cultural analysis, co-movement |
| JEL: | G15 C36 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8076&r=all |
| By: | Jeon, Doh-Shin; Abreu, Luis |
| Abstract: | We consider an ad-financed media firm that chooses the ideological location of its news and targets consumers who can share the news with their followers on online social media. After studying how a targeted consumer's incentive to share the news is shaped by the network structure of her followers, we study the firm's strategy to maximize the breadth of news sharing and find that when the mean (respectively, the variance) of followers' ideological locations is a convex (respectively, concave) function of a direct consumer's location, the firm is likely to produce polarized news. |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:124150&r=all |
| By: | Nicola Pierri; Yannick Timmer |
| Abstract: | Motivated by the world-wide surge of FinTech lending, we analyze the implications of lenders’ information technology adoption for financial stability. We estimate bank-level intensity of IT adoption before the global financial crisis using a novel dataset that provides information on hardware used in US commercial bank branches after mapping them to their parent bank. We find that higher intensity of IT-adoption led to significantly lower non-performing loans when the crisis hit: banks with a one standard deviation higher IT-adoption experienced 10% lower non-performing loans. High-IT-adoption banks were not less exposed to the crisis through their geographical footprint, business model, funding sources, or other observable characteristics. Loan-level analysis indicates that high-IT-adoption banks originated mortgages with better performance and did not offload low-quality loans. We apply a simple text-analysis algorithm to the biographies of top executives and find that banks led by more “tech-oriented” managers adopted IT more intensively and experienced lower non-performing loans during the crisis. Our results suggest that technology adoption in lending can enhance financial stability through the production of more resilient loans. |
| Keywords: | technology, financial stability, IT adoption, non-performing loans |
| JEL: | G21 G14 E44 D82 D83 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8067&r=all |
| By: | Charles Angelucci; Julia Cagé; Michael Sinkinson |
| Abstract: | News media operate in two-sided markets, offering bundles of content to readers as well as selling readers' attention to advertisers. Technological innovations in content delivery, such as the advent of broadcast television or of the Internet, affect both sides of the market, threatening the basic economic model of print news operations. We examine how the entry of television affected local newspapers as well as consumer media diets in the United States. We develop a model of print media and show that entry of national television news could adversely affect the provision of local news. We construct a novel dataset of U.S. newspapers' economic performance and content choices from 1944 to 1964. Our empirical strategy exploits quasi-random variation in the timing of the entry of television in different markets. We show that the entry of television was a negative shock for newspapers, particularly evening newspapers, in both the readership and advertising markets. Further, we find a drop in the total quantity of news printed, in particular original reporting, raising concerns about the provision of local news. |
| JEL: | D4 L11 L15 M37 N72 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26782&r=all |
| By: | Dirk Bergemann (Cowles Foundation, Yale University); Alessandro Bonatti (MIT); Tan Gan (Department of Economics, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | A data intermediary pays consumers for information about their preferences and sells the information so acquired to ï¬ rms that use it to tailor their products and prices. The social dimension of the individual data - whereby an individual’s data are predictive of the behavior of others - generates a data externality that reduces the intermediary’s cost of acquiring information. We derive the intermediary’s optimal data policy and show that it preserves the privacy of the consumers’ identities while providing precise information about market demand to the ï¬ rms. This enables the intermediary to capture the entire value of information as the number of consumers grows large. |
| Keywords: | Social data, Personal information, Consumer privacy, Privacy paradox, Data intermediaries, Data externality, Data flow, Data policy, Data rights |
| JEL: | D44 D82 D83 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2203r&r=all |
| By: | Alberto Fuertes Mendoza (Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales (ICEI), Universidad Complutense de Madrid.) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the behaviour of the external adjustment path for the fourmain economies in the euro area. I find a structural break in the behaviour of thenet external position at the time of the introduction of the euro for France, Italyand Spain, pointing out that the inception of the common currency changed theirexternal adjustment process. Germany does not show this structural break, beingits external position more affected by other events such as the country reunificationin 1989. I also find that France and Italy will adjust the net external position mainlythrough the valuation component, while Germany and Spain will restore their externalbalance mostly through the trade component. The common currency area exacerbatedGermany’s net creditor position as the evolution of the euro has reacted to the externaladjustment needs of debtor countries such as Italy and Spain. |
| Keywords: | External Adjustment; Exchange Rate Regime; Structural Breaks; Valuation Adjustment. |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucm:wpaper:2002&r=all |
| By: | Luo,Xubei; Wang,Yue-000541442; Zhang,Xiaobo |
| Abstract: | China has quickly become the largest e-commerce market in the world. By matching a nationally representative China Family Panel Studies survey with county-level e-commerce information obtained from Alibaba, this paper examines how e-commerce development has shaped household consumption growth in China. The paper presents three major findings. First, e-commerce development is associated with higher consumption growth. Second, the relationship is stronger for the rural sample, inland regions, and poor households, suggesting that e-commerce development helps reduce spatial inequality in consumption. Third, the consumption of durable goods and in-style goods has grown faster than the consumption of local services. |
| Date: | 2019–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8810&r=all |