|
on Payment Systems and Financial Technology |
Issue of 2020‒06‒08
twenty-two papers chosen by |
By: | Lammer, Dominique Marcel; Hanspal, Tobin; Hackethal, Andreas |
Abstract: | Cryptocurrencies have received growing attention from individuals, the media, and regulators. However, little is known about the investors whom these financial instruments attract. Using administrative data, we describe the investment behavior of individuals who invest in cryptocurrencies with structured retail products. We find that cryptocurrency investors are active traders, prone to investment biases, and hold risky portfolios. In line with attention effects and anticipatory utility, we find that the average cryptocurrency investor substantially increases log-in and trading activity after his or her first cryptocurrency purchase. Our results document which investors are more likely to adopt new financial products and help inform regulators about investors' vulnerability to cryptocurrency investments. |
Keywords: | Bitcoin,Cryptocurrencies,Structured retail products,Retail investors,Household finance,Investor behavior |
JEL: | D14 G11 G15 G02 |
Date: | 2020 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewp:277&r=all |
By: | Bahia, Kalvin (GSMA); Castells, Pau (GSMA); Cruz, Genaro (GSMA); Masaki, Takaaki (World Bank); Pedrós, Xavier (GSMA); Pfutze, Tobias (Florida International University); Rodriguez Castelan, Carlos (World Bank); Winkler, Hernan (World Bank) |
Abstract: | This paper estimates the impacts of mobile broadband coverage on household consumption and poverty in Nigeria, the largest economy and mobile broadband market in Africa. The analysis exploits a unique dataset that integrates three waves of a nationally representative longitudinal household survey on living standards with information from Nigerian mobile operators on the deployment of mobile broadband (3G and 4G) coverage between 2010 and 2016. The estimates show that mobile broadband coverage had large and positive impacts on household consumption levels which increased over time, although at a decreasing rate. Mobile broadband coverage also reduces the proportion of households below the poverty line, driven by higher food and non-food consumption in rural households. These effects are mainly due to an increase in labor force participation and employment, particularly among women. |
Keywords: | poverty, household consumption, mobile broadband, Africa, Nigeria |
JEL: | D12 F63 I31 L86 O12 |
Date: | 2020–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13219&r=all |
By: | Marco A Espinosa-Vega; Kazuko Shirono; Hector Carcel Villanova; Esha Chhabra; Bidisha Das; Yingjie Fan |
Abstract: | This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It offers a retrospective of the FAS database, along with some reflections as to its future directions. Since its 2009 launch, the FAS has provided granular data on access to and use of financial services. It is a supply-side database with annual global coverage based on data sourced directly from financial service providers—aimed at supporting policymakers to target and evaluate financial inclusion policies. Its data collection has kept pace with financial innovation, such as the rise of mobile money and growing demand for gender-disaggregated data—and the FAS must continue to evolve. |
Keywords: | Financial inclusion;Financial institutions;Inclusive growth;Economic development;Financial inclusion;Financial institutions;Inclusive growth;Economic development |
Date: | 2020–05–12 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfdep:20/08&r=all |
By: | Olivier Hueber (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UCA - Université Côte d'Azur) |
Abstract: | Managing the profusion of health data from either caregivers, patients and any other stakeholder institution in the health system leads to the creation of numerous databases which are rarely effectively coordinated with one another. In addition, the same information can be recorded several times by different parties, which is a source of many errors. In addition, such large databases are vulnerable to hacking and are subject to strict legal rules for controlling data confidentiality. The dramatic experience of the global Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the great difficulty of effectively monitoring patients with existing information systems. Given this observation, it appears that the creation of a decentralized health blockchain with limited access is a solution to rationalize the management of health data while preserving the essential rules of confidentiality, scalability and traceability. |
Keywords: | Sidechain,Bitcoin,Coronavirus,Blockchain technology,Covid-19,Health Blockchain |
Date: | 2020–05–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02564394&r=all |
By: | Enrique Fernandez-Macias (European Commission - JRC); Martina Bisello (Eurofound) |
Abstract: | In recent years, the increasing concern about the labour market implications of technological change has led economists to look in more detail at the structure of work content and job tasks. Incorporating insights from other traditions of task analysis, in particular from the labour process approach (Braverman, 1974), as well as from recent research on skills, work organisation and occupational change (see for instance Green, 2013; Cohen, 2016; Fernández-Macías and Hurley, 2017), in this paper we propose a new comprehensive and detailed taxonomy of tasks. Going beyond existing broad classifications, our taxonomy aims at connecting the substantive content of work with its organisational context by answering two key questions: what do people do at work and how do they do their work? For illustrative purposes, we show how our approach allows a better understanding of the impact of new technologies on work, by accounting for relevant ongoing transformations such as the diffusion of artificial intelligence and the unfolding of digital labour platforms. |
Keywords: | tasks, technological change, occupations, labour markets, structural change, artificial intelligence, digital labour platforms, Europe. |
Date: | 2020–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:laedte:202004&r=all |
By: | Chen, Yongmin |
Abstract: | The digital economy has substantially reduced market frictions but also posed new challenges for the efficient functioning of markets. In particular, the drastic reductions in the costs of search, entry, transportation, and reproduction have profound implications for the role of platforms, the value of innovation, and the balance between firms' data needs and consumer privacy. I review some recent economic research that sheds light on these issues, and discuss how well-designed policies on competition, regulation, IP protection, and consumer privacy can improve market performance in the digital economy. |
Keywords: | Digital economy, digitization, platforms, search, innovation, data protection, privacy |
JEL: | D2 D8 L8 L86 O3 |
Date: | 2020–04 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100344&r=all |
By: | Bursztyn, Leonardo; Fiorin, Stefano; Gottlieb, Daniel; Kanz, Martin |
Abstract: | We study the role of morality in debt repayment, using an experiment with the credit card customers of a large Islamic bank in Indonesia. In our main treatment, clients receive a text message stating that \non-repayment of debts by someone who is able to repay is an injustice." This moral appeal decreases delinquency by 4.4 percentage points from a baseline of 66 percent, and reduces default among customers with the highest ex-ante credit risk. Additional treatments help benchmark the effects against direct financial incentives, and rule out competing explanations, such as reminder effects, priming religion, and provision of new information. |
Keywords: | credit cards; household finance; religion; moral suasion |
JEL: | D14 G20 G21 Z10 Z12 |
Date: | 2019–08 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:102225&r=all |
By: | Agu, Chinonso .V.; Aguegboh, Ekene .S. |
Abstract: | This paper aims at investigating the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on bank performance in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) banking industry. The data set entails panel data for 35 Sub-Saharan African countries and we employ the system generalized method of moment (GMM) estimation technique for dynamic panel models. ICT variables understudied include: number of automated teller machines (ATMs), ATMs per 100,000 adults, ATM per 1,000 km2 and mobile money transaction; while bank performance was proxied using returns on assets (ROA), returns on earning (ROE), and net interest margin (NIM). The result reveals that ICT is negatively associated with bank performance except for ATMs per 100,000 adults and ATM per 1,000km2, which had positive impact on ROE and NIM. The findings suggest that ICT largely affects bank performance in the short run; in long run these investments become very beneficial to improving bank performance. |
Keywords: | ICT, bank performance, return on assets, return on equity, net interest margin |
JEL: | E44 G20 O31 |
Date: | 2020–05–13 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100355&r=all |
By: | Tobias Huber (ETH Zürich); Didier Sornette (ETH Zürich - Department of Management, Technology, and Economics (D-MTEC); Swiss Finance Institute) |
Abstract: | Bitcoin represents one of the most interesting technological breakthroughs and socio-economic experiments of the last decades. In this paper, we examine the role of speculative bubbles in the process of Bitcoin’s technological adoption by analyzing its social dynamics. We trace Bitcoin’s genesis and dissect the nature of its techno-economic innovation. In particular, we present an analysis of the techno-economic feedback loops that drive Bitcoin’s price and network effects. Based on our analysis of Bitcoin, we test and further refine the Social Bubble Hypothesis, which holds that bubbles constitute an essential component in the process of technological innovation. We argue that a hierarchy of repeating and exponentially increasing series of bubbles and hype cycles, which has occurred over the past decade since its inception, has bootstrapped Bitcoin into existence. |
Keywords: | Bitcoin, Money, Cryptocurrencies, Financial Bubbles, Technological Innovation, Economic Growth, Reflexivity |
JEL: | E40 G01 O40 |
Date: | 2020–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2041&r=all |
By: | Lee Fiorio; Emilio Zagheni (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Guy L. Abel; Johnathan Hill; Gabriel Pestre; Emmanuel Letouzé; Jixuan Cai |
Abstract: | Geo-referenced digital trace data offer unprecedented flexibility in migration estimation. Due to their high temporal granularity, many different migration estimates can be generated from the same dataset by changing the definition parameters. Yet despite the growing application of digital trace data to migration research, strategies for taking advantage of their temporal granularity remain largely underdeveloped. In this paper, we provide a general framework for converting digital trace data into estimates of migration transitions and for systematically analyzing their variation along quasi-continuous time-scale, analogous to a survival function. From migration theory,we develop two simple hypotheses regarding how we expect our estimated migration transition functions to behave. We then test our hypotheses on simulated data and empirical data from three different platforms in two internal migration contexts: geo-tagged Tweets and Gowalla check-ins in the U.S., and cell-phone call detail records in Senegal. Our results demonstrate the need for evaluating the internal consistency of migration estimates derived from digital trace data before using them in substantive research. At the same time, however, common patterns across our three empirical datasets point to an emergent research agenda using digital trace data to study the specific functional relationship between estimates of migration and time and how this relationship varies by geography and population characteristics. |
JEL: | J1 Z0 |
Date: | 2020 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-024&r=all |
By: | Mirai Igarashi; Aijing Xing; Nobuhiko Terui |
Abstract: | Online customer reviews contain useful and important information, particularly, for product development and management, because customers praise or criticize in their reviews certain product attributes. We propose a model that extracts perceived topics from textual reviews using natural language processing under some restrictions created using seed words for improving the topic interpretability. In addition, the proposed model estimates the relationships between the topics and product satisfaction by writers of the review and the perceived helpfulness of reviews by readers, that is, these textual reviews are viewed as current product evaluations by customers who have made purchases and expectations of possible future demand by consumers who have yet to make purchases. The empirical study on e-commerce food reviews shows that our proposed model performs better than the extant alternative models and provides interesting findings such that the "ingredient" topic in the review text decreases the levels of customer satisfaction and the reader's perceived helpfulness. In contrast, the "health" topic increases the levels of both customer satisfaction and the reader's perceived helpfulness. These findings help us understand the product attributes that purchased customers are satisfied with and for which readers of reviews find helpful information. |
Date: | 2020–04 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:toh:dssraa:112&r=all |
By: | David Bounie (SES - Département Sciences Economiques et Sociales - Télécom ParisTech); Youssouf Camara; John Galbraith |
Abstract: | This paper investigates a number of general phenomena connected with consumer behaviour in response to a severe economic shock, using billions of French card transactions measured before and during the COVID-19 epidemic. We examine changes in consumer mobility, anticipatory behaviour in response to announced restrictions, and the contrasts between the responses of online and traditional point-of-sale (off-line) consumption expenditures to the shock. We track hourly, daily and weekly responses as well as estimating an aggregate fixed-period impact effect via a difference-indifference estimator. The results, particularly at the sectoral level, suggest that recourse to the online shopping option diminished somewhat the overall impact of the shock on consumption expenditure, thereby increasing resiliency of the economy. |
Keywords: | COVID-19,consumption expenditure,consumer mobility,online com- merce,resiliency,transaction data |
Date: | 2020–05–07 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02566443&r=all |
By: | Anil K. Jain; Robert M. Townsend |
Abstract: | We present a tractable model of platform competition in a general equilibrium setting. We endogenize the size, number, and type of each platform, while allowing for different user types in utility and impact on platform costs. The economy is Pareto effcient because platforms internalize the network effects of adding more or different types of users by offering type-specific contracts that state both the number and composition of platform users. Using the Walrasian equilibrium concept, the sum of type-specific fees paid cover platform costs. Given the Pareto efficiency of our environment, we argue against the presumption that platforms with externalities need be regulated. |
Keywords: | First and second welfare theorems; Two-sided markets; Externalities |
JEL: | D50 D62 |
Date: | 2020–05–18 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:1280&r=all |
By: | OECD |
Abstract: | The digital environment presents a wide range of benefits to children, whilst also exposing them to various risks, including cyberbullying, harmful content and inappropriate contact with strangers. This report provides an overview of the legal and policy actions that governments, international organisations and other stakeholders have taken to ensure a safe and beneficial digital environment for children. It considers actions taken to keep pace with technological developments, to ensure children can realise the benefits of the digital environment, and to respond to the changing digital risk landscape. The report also informed the revision of the 2012 OECD Recommendation of the Council on the Protection of Children Online, which aims to bring it into line with current and anticipated future needs of children in the digital environment. |
Date: | 2020–06–02 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaab:295-en&r=all |
By: | Christian Lambert Nguena (University of Dschang) |
Abstract: | Using a new database for mobile financial and banking services across countries, we analyze propoor and inclusive growth in developing countries and show the importance of mobile financial and banking development. This paper uses several econometric techniques to investigate mobile finance and banking benchmarking, determinants, and real impacts on inclusive growth in developing countries in Africa. The statistical benchmarking analysis reveals that there is a positive link between mobile banking development and economic development. Estimation of our model, using different specification and estimation techniques, shows the same result: a positive impact of mobile finance and banking development on both pro-poor and inclusive economic growth. These main findings suggest that policies to boost mobile finance and banking development in Africa should be viewed as measures that would yield fruit in the medium to long terms. Moreover, we find determinants of mobile finance and banking to be: banking sector domestic credit, human capital, remittances, credible monetary policy, infrastructure, and trade. Since mobile banking development matters for pro-poor and inclusive growth, African governments should pursue good performance in terms of these determinants by implementing specific and robust economic policies. JEL classification: G21, R1, O4Keywords: Mobile finance and banking, Africa, principal component analysis, financial innovation, financial inclusion |
Date: | 2019–08–21 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adb:adbwps:2449&r=all |
By: | Julie Pellegrin (CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies); Louis Colnot (CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies) |
Abstract: | Academics and policy-makers see digital technologies as a significant driver of growth and innovation, capable of triggering radical transformations in both businesses’ operations and citizens’ life and welfare. Their potential is therefore deemed considerable, yet challenging to assess with certainty. The EU has been a pioneer institution in promoting the digitalisation of its economy. Its main ambition is to harness the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for growth and well-being. Its long-lasting support has been delivered through different types of interventions, including regulation and funding. It is critical as the successful development of ICT requires a mixture of top-down (e.g., regulatory framework, broadband networks…) and bottom-up (e.g., demand for digital services by citizens…) initiatives. Despite these efforts, the EU economy is generally considered as remaining below its digitalisation potential. Additionally, large disparities in digitalisation performance are observed both within and between the Member States. This situation prevents the EU from reaping the full benefits linked to ICT. In that context, the regional level is fundamental to address the challenges arising from digitalisation. Indeed, it can help to articulate both bottom-up and top-down initiatives in a way that is consistent with the specific strengths and issues of territories, i.e., in a place-based manner. In particular, EU Cohesion Policy has supported digitalisation for several programming periods, combining a prominent funding mechanism with a relevant territorial approach. Based on a series of case studies and a review of secondary sources, this paper aims at assessing how the 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy framework contributes to the adequate formulation and delivery of regional digital strategies. The analysis suggests that the Cohesion Policy’s ability to steer the development of regional digital strategies is done through specific incentives (e.g., funding concentration, holistic approach). Its contribution also stems from its attention to the development of partnerships and stakeholders’ involvement around specific territorial issues both during the formulation of regional digital strategies and during their delivery on the ground. However, there are some limits to its contribution, e.g. regarding the synergies between EU funding instruments for digital interventions. Further research is needed to ensure the generalisation of findings and estimate the causal role of Cohesion Policy’s framework. |
Keywords: | Cohesion Policy, ICT, digitalisation, regional digital strategies |
JEL: | H7 O18 O38 R58 Z18 |
Date: | 2020–05–01 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mst:wpaper:201901&r=all |
By: | Michal Krawczyk (University of Warsaw; Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE)); Joanna Tyrowicz (Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE); University of Warsaw; Institut für Arbeitsrecht und Arbeitsbeziehungen in der Europäischen Union (IAAEU); Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)); Anna Kukla-Gryz (University of Warsaw) |
Abstract: | We study a relationship between perceived price fairness and digital piracy. In a large-scale field experiment on customers of a leading ebook store we employ the Bayesian Truth Serum to elicit the information on acquiring books from unauthorized sources (often referred to as digital piracy). We provide empirical evidence in support of the conjecture that willingness to ‘pirate’ is associated with having experienced subjective overpricing. We propose and verify the relevance of two mechanisms behind this link: reactance theory and moral cleansing/licensing. The results indicate that pricing policy perceived as fair may reduce the scope for digital piracy. |
Keywords: | unauthorized download; digital piracy; fair price; online sales; Bayesian Truth Serum |
JEL: | P31 D24 O47 |
Date: | 2019 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fme:wpaper:39&r=all |
By: | Dolata, Ulrich |
Abstract: | The leading Internet groups, with their extensively networked platforms, have become the key players in the design and regulatory framing of the Internet in the course of the 2010s. This paper examines the mechanisms by which they fulfil their role as structurebuilding, rule-making and action-coordinating core actors in today's Web. The focus is on two essential regulatory areas: on the one hand, the private-sector organization and regulation of markets, in which they themselves, as platform operators, coordinate market processes and determine the conditions of competition; on the other hand, the tech- nically mediated structuring and curation of social relationships and social behavior, through which the platform operators assume far-reaching social ordering and regulatory functions. The few large platforms that today enable and coordinate large parts of private and public life on the Internet can - according to the thesis of this article - be understood as differentiated societal structures with a distinct institutional basis, which the platform operators shape and control to a considerable extent by means of their own rules, regulations and coordination bodies-up to the performance of quasi-sovereign tasks by the companies, which were previously reserved for state authorities and have so far largely been able to elude democratic legitimation and control. |
Date: | 2020 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:stusoi:202002&r=all |
By: | Schachtner, Christian |
Abstract: | The Internet of Things (IoT) is an etablished research topic with reach aspects in connected data information technology and adjacent domains, due to scientifically and economically relevant application scenarios. Since the past decade, the concept has been used in a wider range, such as healthcare, utilities, transport, etc. |
Date: | 2019–12–31 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:2d9wm&r=all |
By: | Thorstensen, Vera Helena; Zuchieri, Amanda Mitsue |
Abstract: | O artigo pretende apresentar o arranjo institucional e de políticas públicas do governo brasileiro em busca da transformação digital do setor público sob o ponto de vista da OCDE. Foi adotado como material base o relatório produzido pela Organização intitulado Digital Government Review of Brazil: Towards the Digital Transformation of the Public Sector, no qual são descritas as avaliações e recomendações dos esforços e iniciativas governamentais no campo digital. |
Date: | 2020–05–28 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:eesptd:529&r=all |
By: | Spengel, Christoph; Ludwig, Christopher; Müller, Raphael; Werner, Ann-Catherin |
Abstract: | Die zunehmende Digitalisierung hat zu einem starken Wachstum der Plattformökonomie beigetragen. Online-Vermittlungsplattformen ermöglichen Verbrauchern/innen eine professionelle Interaktion zum Austausch von Gütern und Dienstleistungen. Eines der bekanntesten Geschäftsmodelle dieses Wirtschaftszweigs ist die Vermittlung von Unterkünften über Plattformen wie Airbnb. Schätzungen des ZEW Mannheim zeigen, dass der Mietumsatz - in 20 exemplarisch untersuchten deutschen Städten - über diese Plattform bei etwa 680 Millionen Euro im Jahr 2018 liegt. Eine im Vergleich zu anderen Wettbewerbern gerechte einkommens- und umsatzsteuerliche Behandlung dieser Geschäfte ist unabdingbar. Obwohl die Besteuerungsfolgen für über Airbnb oder andere Vermittlungsplattformen erzielte Ein-künfte gesetzlich klar geregelt sind, stellt die Durchsetzung des Steueranspruchs die Finanzbehör-den vor Schwierigkeiten. Im Gegensatz etwa zu Einkünften aus Kapitalvermögen, bei denen Kredit-institute in der Pflicht stehen, im Auftrag der Finanzverwaltung die fälligen Steuern direkt für den Bezieher der Einkünfte einzubehalten, müssen Finanzbehörden bei Einkünften über Sharing-Economy-Plattformen auf deren korrekte Deklaration durch die Steuerpflichtigen vertrauen. Diese - auch durch Unwissenheit - nicht immer befolgte Mitwirkungspflicht der Steuerpflichtigen kann zu hohen Steuerausfällen führen. In einer experimentellen Untersuchung konnte allerdings gezeigt werden, dass Konsumenten/innen die Steuerehrlichkeit von Anbietern auf Vermittlungsplattformen durch stärkere Nachfrage würdigen. Mithilfe eines glaubhaften Signals der Steuerehrlichkeit, vergleichbar zu anderen bekannten Güte-siegeln, können anscheinend Anbieter - in Abhängigkeit von persönlichen Normen der Konsumen-ten/innen - das Vertrauen in ihre angebotene Dienstleistung erhöhen. |
Date: | 2020 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewpbs:32020&r=all |
By: | Nufer, Gerd; Beck, Maria |
Abstract: | Influencer Marketing stellt derzeit einen der größten Trends im Online-Marketing dar. Zahlreiche Unternehmen betreiben aktuell Influencer Marketing und die Zahl wächst stetig. Das Bilden und Beeinflussen der Meinung von Konsumenten ist nicht neu, im Gegenteil, dies ist eine grundsätzliche Aufgabe von Werbung. Doch worin besteht der Reiz des Influencer Marketing sowohl für Unternehmen als auch für Konsumenten? Wodurch konnte eine kompett neue Berufsgruppe erschaffen werden, die dadurch ein festes Einkommen generiert? Das heutige Influencer Marketing kann aufgrund der derzeitigen Entwicklung sogar größere Erfolge als herkömmliche Werbemaßnahmen auslösen. Im nachfolgenden Diskussionspapier sollen die Fragen um die Herkunft, die Vorgehensweisen und den Hype um Influencer Mareting sachlich argumentiert dargelegt werden. Zudem werden vier Unternehmen, die erfolgreich Influencer-Marketing betreiben, näher betrachtet und Expertenmeinungen aus diesen Unternehmen vorgestellt. |
Keywords: | Marketing,Management,Influencer,Social Media |
Date: | 2020 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esbwmm:20202&r=all |