|
on Payment Systems and Financial Technology |
|
Issue of 2020‒06‒22
34 papers chosen by |
| By: | Kevin Foster; Claire Greene; Joanna Stavins |
| Abstract: | In 2018, U.S. consumers made 72 payments per month on average, not a significant change from 2017. As in 2017, the most frequently used payment instruments were debit cards (34 percent of all transactions), cash (24 percent), and credit cards (23 percent). Over the 11 years of the survey, debit, cash, and credit have consistently been the most popular ways to pay. For the first time in 2018, debit cards replaced cash as the payment instrument used most frequently for in-person purchases. Some key findings about medium-term trends from 2015 to 2018 include the following: • The share of consumers adopting mobile apps or mobile online accounts (such as Android Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay) increased from 40 percent to 60 percent. • The share making a mobile payment at least once in the previous 12 months increased from one-fourth to one-third of consumers. • There was a statistically significant increase in the use of mobile banking, from 45 percent of consumers to 56 percent. • The share of credit card adopters who carried an unpaid balance steadily declined to 44 percent in 2018. Notable findings within the last year include the following: • While the number of online purchases per month increased slightly, from 5.6 per consumer in 2017 to 5.9 in 2018, the change was not statistically significant. • There was a statistically significant decline in the use of cash, from 19 payments per month to 17. • The use of paper checks continued to decline, from 6 percent of payments per month to 5 percent. • The share of consumers using bank account number payment (BANP) at least once in a month increased from 59 percent to 66 percent. Interactive charts, showing payment use by transaction type, income, and age, are posted on the Atlanta Fed website. |
| Keywords: | unbanked; credit cards; checks; cash; prepaid cards; checking accounts; payment preferences; debit cards; Survey of Consumer Payment Choice; electronic payments |
| JEL: | D14 E42 D12 |
| Date: | 2020–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedadr:87820&r=all |
| By: | Jan Kregel; Paolo Savona |
| Abstract: | According to Senior Scholar Jan Kregel and Paolo Savona, attempting to maintain the status quo in the face of the introduction of some recent technological innovations--chiefly cryptocurrencies and associated instruments based on distributed ledger technology, the deployment of artificial intelligence, and the use of data science in financial markets--will create risks that increase instability and threaten national financial systems. In this policy brief, they analyze the impacts of these innovations on the present institutional environment and outline an appropriate regulatory framework. Kregel and Savona argue that a public monopoly on the issuance of cryptocurrency could promote financial stability and help repair the dissociation between finance and the real economy. |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:levppb:ppb_150&r=all |
| By: | KAWASHIMA Fujio |
| Abstract: | In China, e-commerce transactions, represented by those done through Alibaba-run e-commerce shopping malls such as Taobao and T-mall, have been developing rapidly. In addition, taking advantage of the proliferation of smart phone payment services which have developed faster than in Japan, a variety of new information technology-related businesses have been introduced into markets, such as ride sharing, bike sharing, internet food delivery and so on. At present, most of such new entrants have been integrated, through capital and other relationships, into either one of Alibaba group, which runs Taobao, T-mall ad Alipay, or Tencent Group, which runs Wechat and Wechat Pay, which together constitute the two largest IT conglomerates. By demonstrating the contrast between the current trends in Japan, the United States and the European Union towards more and more stringent antimonopoly/competition laws regulation of IT giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, this discussion paper introduces legal regulations, especially regulations through China's Anti-Monopoly Law, Anti-Unfair Competition Law and E-Commerce Law, of Chinese IT giants and their characteristics and limitations. This paper also examines what lessons we can learn for corresponding regulations in other jurisdictions and development of international rules. |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:20022&r=all |
| By: | Gal Shahaf; Ehud Shapiro; Nimrod Talmon |
| Abstract: | Cryptocurrencies are a digital medium of exchange with decentralized control that renders the community operating the cryptocurrency its sovereign. Leading cryptocurrencies use proof-of-work or proof-of-stake to reach consensus, thus are inherently plutocratic. This plutocracy is reflected not only in control over execution, but also in the distribution of new wealth, giving rise to ``rich get richer'' phenomena. Here, we explore the possibility of an alternative digital currency that is egalitarian in control and just in the distribution of created wealth. Such currencies can form and grow in grassroots and sybil-resilient way. A single currency community can achieve distributive justice by egalitarian coin minting, where each member mints one coin at every time step. Egalitarian minting results, in the limit, in the dilution of any inherited assets and in each member having an equal share of the minted currency, adjusted by the relative productivity of the members. Our main theorem shows that a currency network, where agents can be members of more than one currency community, can achieve distributive justice globally across the network by \emph{joint egalitarian minting}, where each agent mints one coin in only one community at each timestep. Equality and distributive justice can be achieved among people that own the computational agents of a currency community provided that the agents are genuine (unique and singular). We show that currency networks are sybil-resilient, in the sense that sybils (fake or duplicate agents) affect only the communities that harbour them, and not hamper the ability of genuine (sybil-free)communities in a network to achieve distributed justice. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2005.14631&r=all |
| By: | Taiji Inui (Chief Advisor, JICA CBM TC Project, Central Bank of Myanmar and ADB consultant for Cross-border Settlement Infrastructure Forum (CSIF)); Wataru Takahashi (Faculty of Economics, Osaka University of Economics and Research Fellow, RIEB, Kobe University); Mamoru Ishida (Advisor, Itochu Corporation and Former Professor, Hannan University) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes to provide Asian common currency in the form of digital currency using technology such as blockchain by an international organization (eg AMRO) in East Asia. In this proposal, we assume that each present currency and the new digital common currency coexist in the respective economies for the time being. With the advent of digital currency, the common currency has become more technically feasible. Our proposal has the following three advantages; (1) merits as a digital currency, (2) merits as a common currency, and (3) a currency that is managed in a multilateral flamework. By the last point, it could prevent dominant control of an international currency by large countries, and political fairness can be secured. This proposal has a perspective to develop into a global digital currency in the future. |
| Keywords: | Digital currency; Asia common currency; Distributed ledger technology; Blockchain, Account-based, Token-based |
| JEL: | E42 F36 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2020-19&r=all |
| By: | Claire Greene; Joanna Stavins |
| Abstract: | This paper describes key results from the 2018 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC), the fifth in a series of diary surveys that measure payment behavior through the daily recording of the spending of U.S. consumers. The DCPC is the only diary survey of U.S. consumer payments with data and results that are available to the public without a fee. In October 2018, consumers made more payments with debit cards than with any other payment instrument (28 percent of payments). Cash, in all prior diary years the most-used payment instrument, followed with 26 percent of payments. Together with credit cards (23 percent), these instruments accounted for slightly more than three-quarters of the number of payments. By value, electronic payments accounted for 36 percent of the value of total payments, a statistically significant increase from 2017. The value share of payments made with paper instruments continued its steady decline, from 31 percent in 2015 to 23 percent in 2018. The average value of a cash transaction was $21, compared with $206 for the average noncash transaction (and $92 for all transactions). The average value of consumers' holdings of cash on their persons (in pocket, purse, or wallet) was about $60. |
| Keywords: | electronic payments; prepaid cards; credit cards; checking accounts; checks; payment preferences; cash; Diary of Consumer Payment Choice; debit cards |
| JEL: | E42 D14 D12 |
| Date: | 2020–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedadr:87821&r=all |
| By: | Duffie, Darrell (Stanford U) |
| Abstract: | I explain the meaning of an interoperable payment system and why interoperability is crucial for efficiency. I review some alternative approaches to interoperability, including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), hybrid CBDCs, and two-ledger upgrades of bank-based payment systems. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:3867&r=all |
| By: | Kamepalli, Sai Krishna; Rajan, Raghuram G; Zingales, Luigi |
| Abstract: | We study why high-priced acquisitions of entrants by an incumbent do not necessarily stimulate more innovation and entry in an industry (like that of digital platforms) where customers face switching costs and enjoy network externalities. The prospect of an acquisition by the incumbent platform undermines early adoption by customers, reducing prospective payoffs to new entrants. This creates a "kill zone" in the space of startups, as described by venture capitalists, where new ventures are not worth funding. Evidence from changes in investment in startups by venture capitalists after major acquisitions by Facebook and Google suggests this is more than a mere theoretical possibility. |
| Keywords: | Acquisitions; Digital Platforms; Kill Zone |
| JEL: | G31 G34 L41 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14709&r=all |
| By: | Hiekkanen, Kari; Seppälä, Timo; Ylhäinen, Ilkka |
| Abstract: | Abstract The role of the digital technologies are becoming increasingly important in our day-to-day life. Digital technologies have become part of our social life as well as business operations across different industrial and public sectors. Because of digitalization the internet protocol and data traffic have been on the rise for several years. A few studies and estimates have been presented about the increasing future use of energy and electricity. Occasionally consumer behaviors have been claimed to be behind of these increases in electricity use. This report makes an effort to understand the energy and electricity consumption of the Finnish Information sector (ICT-sector) from 2011 until 2017. Additionally, we compare the Finnish electricity use to other European countries with similar data available. The findings of this study are partly inconsistent with those previously presented in terms of future energy and electricity use. Our report also shows that energy efficiencies of the information sector have not been retained while the internet protocol and data traffic have been increasing in both fixed and mobile networks. |
| Keywords: | Information economy sector, ICT, IP traffic, Data use, Energy consumption, Electricity consumption |
| JEL: | L8 L82 L86 L94 |
| Date: | 2020–06–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:report:104&r=all |
| By: | Holtz, David; Zhao, Michael; Benzell, Seth G.; Cao, Cathy Y.; Rahimian, M. Amin; Yang, Jeremy; Allen, Jennifer Nancy Lee; Collis, Avinash; Moehring, Alex Vernon; Sowrirajan, Tara |
| Abstract: | Social distancing is the core policy response to COVID-19. But as federal, state and local governments begin opening businesses and relaxing shelter-in-place orders worldwide, we lack quantitative evidence on how policies in one region affect mobility and social distancing in other regions and the consequences of uncoordinated regional policies adopted in the presence of such spillovers. We therefore combined daily, county-level data on shelter-in-place and business closure policies with movement data from over 27 million mobile devices, social network connections among over 220 million of Facebook users, daily temperature and precipitation data from 62,000 weather stations and county-level census data on population demographics to estimate the geographic and social network spillovers created by regional policies across the United States. Our analysis showed the contact patterns of people in a given region are significantly influenced by the policies and behaviors of people in other, sometimes distant, regions. When just one third of a state’s social and geographic peer states adopt shelter in place policies, it creates a reduction in mobility equal to the state’s own policy decisions. These spillovers are mediated by peer travel and distancing behaviors in those states. A simple analytical model calibrated with our empirical estimates demonstrated that the “loss from anarchy” in uncoordinated state policies is increasing in the number of non cooperating states and the size of social and geographic spillovers. These results suggest a substantial cost of uncoordinated government responses to COVID-19 when people, ideas, and media move across borders. |
| Date: | 2020–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:b9psy&r=all |
| By: | Claire Greene; Joanna Stavins |
| Abstract: | This paper describes key results from the 2017 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC), the fourth in a series of diary surveys that measure payment behavior through the daily recording of U.S. consumers' spending. The DCPC is the only diary survey of U.S. consumer payments available free to the public. In October 2017, consumers paid mostly with cash (30.3 percent of payments), debit cards (26.2 percent), and credit cards (21.0 percent). These instruments accounted for three-quarters of the number of payments, but only about 40 percent of the total value of payments, because they tend to be used more for smaller-value payments. In contrast, electronic payments accounted for 30.3 percent of the value of total payments but only 8.9 percent of the number of payments. Checks, at 17.7 percent, continued to account for a relatively high percentage of the value of payments. The average value of a cash transaction was $23.4, compared with $109.3 for the average noncash transaction (and $83.3 for all transactions). The average value of consumers' holdings of cash on their persons (in pocket, purse, or wallet) was about $60. |
| Keywords: | debit cards; Diary of Consumer Payment Choice; prepaid cards; checks; checking accounts; cash; payment preferences; credit cards; electronic payments |
| JEL: | D12 D14 E42 |
| Date: | 2020–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedadr:87817&r=all |
| By: | Sai Krishna Kamepalli; Raghuram Rajan; Luigi Zingales |
| Abstract: | We study why high-priced acquisitions of entrants by an incumbent do not necessarily stimulate more innovation and entry in an industry (like that of digital platforms) where customers face switching costs and enjoy network externalities. The prospect of an acquisition by the incumbent platform undermines early adoption by customers, reducing prospective payoffs to new entrants. This creates a “kill zone” in the space of startups, as described by venture capitalists, where new ventures are not worth funding. Evidence from changes in investment in startups by venture capitalists after major acquisitions by Facebook and Google suggests this is more than a mere theoretical possibility. |
| JEL: | G31 G34 L41 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27146&r=all |
| By: | Aurore Oskar KOWALEWSKI (IESEG School of Management & LEM-CNRS 9221); Paweł PISANY (Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the determinants of fintech company creation and activity using a cross-country sample that includes developed and developing countries. Using a random effect negative binomial model and explainable machine learning algorithms, we show the positive role of technology advancements in each economy, quality of research, and more importantly, the level of university-industry collaboration. Additionally, we find that demographic factors may play a role in fintech creation and activity. Some fintech companies may find the quality and stringency of regulation to be an obstacle. Our results also show the sophisticated interactions between the banking sector and fintech companies that we may describe as a mix of cooperation and competition. |
| Keywords: | fintech, innovation, start up, developed countries, developing countries |
| JEL: | G21 G23 L26 O30 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ies:wpaper:f202006&r=all |
| By: | Giao, Ha Nam Khanh; Vuong, Bui Nhat |
| Abstract: | This research examines four specific objectives: (1) identifying factors that affect Vietnamese consumer attitudes towards smartphone advertising, (2) measuring the level of impact of the factors, (3) testing the difference of attitudes among groups of consumers with different characteristics in terms of gender, age, income, and academic level, and (4) proposing some managerial implications to have better Vietnamese consumer attitudes towards smartphone advertising. The study uses the online survey form via e-mail and Facebook in a convenience sampling method; the subjects surveyed are between the ages of 18 and 35, and all are in urban areas in Vietnam, and are using smartphones and accessing the internet and other phone applications. A sample of 490 respondents were valid and used for processing. The study employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze exploratory factors and linear multiple regression. The results reveal that there are five main factors affecting Vietnamese consumer attitudes towards smartphone advertising positively, arranged by reduced importance: entertainment, informativeness, credibility, non-irritation, permission and control. From that, the study offers some managerial suggestions for smartphone advertisers to improve their strategies and tatics to enhance their customer service, so that the smartphone advertising can attract people and help Vietnamese consumer in their buying behavior. |
| Date: | 2020–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:q8rzx&r=all |
| By: | Juan Ayuso Huertas (Banco de España); Carlos Antonio Conesa Lareo (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | Este documento ofrece una visión general sobre el significado de una central bank digital currency (CBDC) que pueda servir de base para una discusión ordenada que permita profundizar en los diferentes aspectos relevantes del debate actualmente abierto sobre este activo financiero digital. El objetivo fundamental es revisar las motivaciones que pueden justificar la emisión de CBDC y llevar a cabo un análisis preliminar de sus principales implicaciones, especialmente de las vinculadas a los modelos de CBDC que parecen más probables, a tenor de las motivaciones de los bancos centrales que, en estos momentos, han avanzado más seriamente hacia su emisión. |
| Keywords: | moneda digital de banco central, stablecoins, criptomonedas, criptoactivos |
| JEL: | E42 E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:opaper:2005&r=all |
| By: | Marco Angrisani; Kevin Foster; Marcin Hitczenko |
| Abstract: | This document serves as the technical appendix to the 2016 and 2017 Surveys of Consumer Payment Choice administered by the Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR). The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice (SCPC) is an annual study designed primarily to collect data on attitudes toward and use of various payment instruments by consumers over the age of 18 in the United States. The main report, which introduces the survey and discusses the principal economic results, is on our website at frbatlanta.org/banking-and-payments/consumer-payments/survey-of-consumer-payment-choice. In this data report, we detail the technical aspects of the survey design, implementation, and analysis. |
| Keywords: | survey cleaning; sample selection; raking; poststratification estimates; survey design |
| JEL: | E4 D12 D14 |
| Date: | 2020–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedadr:87813&r=all |
| By: | Ennis, Sean; Ivaldi, Marc; Lagos, Vicente |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of most favored nation (MFN) clauses on retail prices, taking advantage of two natural experiments that changed vertical contracting between hotels and major digital platforms. The broad E.U. intervention narrowed the breadth of "price parity" obligations between hotels and major Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Direct sales by hotels to customers subsequently became relatively cheaper. Comparisons with hotel pricing outside the E.U. confirm the reduction in prices for mid-level and luxury hotels. France and Germany went further and eliminated all price-parity agreements. This stronger intervention was associated solely with a significant additional price-reducing effect for mid-level hotels in Germany. Overall, wide MFNs are associated with higher retail prices. Regulating MFNs reduced prices with primary effects coming either from the narrow price-parity intervention or, perhaps, from direct sales becoming cheaper than OTAs in both E.U. and non-E.U. countries, and, interestingly, not from complete elimination of MFNs. |
| Keywords: | Digital Platforms; Hotel Industry; Impact Evaluation; Most favored customer; Most favored nation; Online Travel Agency; Price Parity Clause |
| JEL: | K21 L14 L42 L81 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14771&r=all |
| By: | Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde; Daniel R. Sanches; Linda Schilling; Harald F. Uhlig |
| Abstract: | The introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) allows the central bank to engage in large-scale intermediation by competing with private financial interme-diaries for deposits. Yet, since a central bank is not an investment expert, it cannot invest in long-term projects itself, but relies on investment banks to do so. We derive an equivalence result that shows that absent a banking panic, the set of allocations achieved with private financial intermediation will also be achieved with a CBDC. Dur-ing a panic, however, we show that the rigidity of the central bank’s contract with the investment banks has the capacity to deter runs. Thus, the central bank is more stable than the commercial banking sector. Depositors internalize this feature ex-ante, and the central bank arises as a deposit monopolist, attracting all deposits away from the commercial banking sector. This monopoly might endanger maturity transformation. |
| Keywords: | central bank digital currency; central banking; intermediation; maturity transformation; bank runs; lender of last resort. |
| JEL: | E58 G21 |
| Date: | 2020–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:88105&r=all |
| By: | Hacioglu, Sinem; Känzig, Diego R; Surico, Paolo |
| Abstract: | Using transaction data from a large Fintech company, we document a decline of 40% to 50% in the spending of British households during the Covid-19 crisis. The fall is concentrated in services such as retail, restaurants and transportation. The initial rise in on-line shopping and groceries purchases has been subsequently reverted. Income reductions have become far more frequent, with a median decline around 30%. The share of borrowers facing financing issues has increased significantly for both secured and unsecured lending. Consumption and income inequality have surged, with the most economically vulnerable groups experiencing the largest percentage decline. Mortgagors and higher earners in London record the most sizable pound change. |
| Keywords: | Access to finance; expenditure; Income; real-time indicators |
| JEL: | D12 E21 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14733&r=all |
| By: | Claire Greene; Oz Shy |
| Abstract: | Most research on payment instruments focuses on how consumers pay or spend their money using a wide variety of payment instruments including cash. This report focuses on the inverse of the question of spending, that is, how do consumers obtain cash? Data from the 2017 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice shows that, over a three-day period, about 21 percent of survey respondents get cash via various methods, such as getting cash from a family member or friend, using an ATM, getting cash back at retail, visiting a bank teller, etc. We find that consumers mostly get cash from family and friends, followed by ATM withdrawals, and the average amount they get is around $100. The median is $40, and, in about half of the cases, consumers get cash in exact multiples of $20. Friday is the most popular day for getting cash in any way, while day-of-week differences are less pronounced for ATM withdrawals. |
| Keywords: | Diary of Consumer Payment Choice; ATMs; cash |
| JEL: | E42 D9 D14 |
| Date: | 2020–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedadr:87819&r=all |
| By: | Giao, Ha Nam Khanh; Vuong, Bui Nhat |
| Abstract: | Internet banking is becoming a new focus as the number of internet users and its benefits are increasing worldwide and its benefits. However, the degree of intent to use internet banking is still a question of interest. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting attitude and behavioral intention to use internet banking in Viet Nam, as well as the moderating role of anxiety, will be examined. Totally, 584 questionnaires were collected for the final analysis. The results from the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using the SmartPLS 3.0 program showed that facilitating condition, performance expectancy, social influence, perceived credibility, and effort expectancy had a positive impact on attitude and behavioral intention to use internet banking. Besides, anxiety decreased behavioral intention and it also dampened the positive relationship between attitude and behavioral intention. The findings of this study could help banks to improve their service to attract more users. Besides, the use of internet banking could reduce the frequency to a bank that indirectly reduces costs. |
| Date: | 2020–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:3rgh6&r=all |
| By: | Bruno Carvalho; Susana Peralta; Joao Pereira dos Santos |
| Abstract: | This paper uses novel and comprehensive data on electronic payments from SIBS, the main provider of point of sale terminals and on-line payments in Portugal, to study the impact of the Great Lockdown on purchases. The data aggregates all individual transactions into monthly observations, by municipality and sector, between 2018 and 2020. We employ a difference-in-differences event study that relies on the assumption that the monthly evolution of purchases in the first four months of 2020 would be parallel to that of the two previous years. We identify a massive causal impact on overall purchases, from a baseline year-on-year monthly growth rate of 10% to a decrease of 45%. The sign and magnitude of the impact varies considerably across sectors. Purchases of essential goods such as supermarkets and groceries increase mildly, contrasting with severe contractions in sectors that were closed by government order or depend heavily on tourism, including the leisure industry and restaurants. We find suggestive evidence of initial stockpiling of goods, postponing of essential expenditures, and rapid recovery of purchases in tech and entertainment, possibly to adapt to the confinement. Transactions with foreign-owned cards cause an even greater negative contraction. We disentangle the total effect into the intensive margin of the average transaction and the extensive margin of the number of transactions. Buyers adjust their shopping strategies in rational ways to minimize public health risks: they go less often to supermarkets and buy more each time, and visit local groceries more. |
| Keywords: | Portugal; Covid-19; transaction data; consumer behavior; sectoral impacts |
| JEL: | R10 D12 E21 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/307531&r=all |
| By: | Jacopo Bonan; Pietro Battiston; Jaimie Bleck; Philippe LeMay-Boucher; Stefano Pareglio; Bassirou Sarr; Massimo Tavoni |
| Abstract: | Easy-to-use and risk-free technologies, which require little investment and potentially provide health and environmental benefits, often have low adoption rates. Using a randomized experiment in urban Mali, we assess the impact of a training session in which information on an improved cookstove (ICS) is provided along with the opportunity to purchase the product at the market price. We find direct and spillover effects from our invitation to the session on ICS ownership and usage. We then randomly assign half of the training participants to receive information on a peer's actual purchase. Our results indicate that conditional on receiving information, an individual is more likely to adopt the product if informed about a peer they know and who purchased the product. Our sessions have no discernible impact on product knowledge or household welfare. We argue that social interaction, through imitation, can represent an important channel for increasing take-up and diffusion. |
| Keywords: | Technology Adoption, Social Interaction, Imitation Effects, Cookstoves, Mali |
| JEL: | D91 O33 O13 M31 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:442&r=all |
| By: | Hamed Taherdoost (Hamta Group , Research Club (Research and Development Departement) | Hamta Group, Hamta Academy | Hamta Group, Tablokar Co | Switchgear Manufacturer) |
| Abstract: | It is significant to note that user acceptance and confidence are crucial for further development of any new technology [1,2]. Businesses have facilitated or planning to facilitate their business platform to increase personnel efficiency, marketing improvement, cost reduction and increase profitability. Therefore, recognition the needs and acceptance of individuals is the beginning stage of any businesses and this understanding would be helpful to find the way of future development [3-5]. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02557395&r=all |
| By: | Pardi, Tommaso.; Krzywdzinski, Martin.; Luethje, Boy. |
| Abstract: | The article analyses the evolution of automotive manufacturing technologies and organisations and assesses the impact of “fourth industrial revolution” concepts and policies (in Germany, US and China) in particular for employment and work. While it dismisses the idea that a fourth industrial revolution is under way and that a radical break will happen in the coming years, it shows that more subtle changes are taking place on the shop-floor of automotive factories that might result in deskilling and work intensification. The article advocates for a more active role of trade unions and social partners in challenging these narratives of disruptive change and building alternative human-centred visions of the future of work. |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:995073193302676&r=all |
| By: | Emaad Manzoor; George H. Chen; Dokyun Lee; Michael D. Smith |
| Abstract: | Deliberation among individuals online plays a key role in shaping the opinions that drive votes, purchases, donations and other critical offline behavior. Yet, the determinants of opinion-change via persuasion in deliberation online remain largely unexplored. Our research examines the persuasive power of $\textit{ethos}$ -- an individual's "reputation" -- using a 7-year panel of over a million debates from an argumentation platform containing explicit indicators of successful persuasion. We identify the causal effect of reputation on persuasion by constructing an instrument for reputation from a measure of past debate competition, and by controlling for unstructured argument text using neural models of language in the double machine-learning framework. We find that an individual's reputation significantly impacts their persuasion rate above and beyond the validity, strength and presentation of their arguments. In our setting, we find that having 10 additional reputation points causes a 31% increase in the probability of successful persuasion over the platform average. We also find that the impact of reputation is moderated by characteristics of the argument content, in a manner consistent with a theoretical model that attributes the persuasive power of reputation to heuristic information-processing under cognitive overload. We discuss managerial implications for platforms that facilitate deliberative decision-making for public and private organizations online. |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2006.00707&r=all |
| By: | Pierre Schweitzer (LID2MS - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Droit des Médias et Mutations Sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université) |
| Abstract: | Serge Schweitzer, économiste disciple de l'Ecole Autrichienne d'Economie, a toujours affiché ses sympathies libertariennes. Dans la lignée d'économistes tels que Ludwig Von Mises ou Murray Rothbard, il a toujours dénoncé le monopole des gouvernements dans la production monétaire au travers des banques centrales. Cette situation est aujourd'hui remise en cause par une innovation technologique : les crypto-monnaies (ou cybermonnaies) au premier rang desquelles Bitcoin. Pour honorer la carrière de Serge Schweitzer et son combat pour une monnaie libre, l'auteur fait l'éloge de Bitcoin et trace les principales perspectives économiques et politiques offertes par cette innovation. Malgré son caractère révolutionnaire d'un point de vue technologique et politique, Bitcoin fait face à des barrières règlementaires qui seront difficiles à surmonter, et que l'auteur analyse en conclusion de cet article. |
| Keywords: | bitcoin,monnaie,libertariens,économie monétaire,cypherpunk,radicalité |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02120767&r=all |
| By: | Braggion, Fabio; Manconi, Alberto; Pavanini, Nicola; Zhu, Haikun |
| Abstract: | We study the welfare effects of the transition of online debt crowdfunding from the older "peer-to-peer" model to the "marketplace" model, where the crowdfunding platform sells diversified loan portfolios to investor. We develop an equilibrium model of debt crowdfunding capturing platform design (peer-to-peer or marketplace) and lender preferences over loan and portfolio product characteristics, and we estimate it on a novel database on credit at a large online platform based in China. Moving from the peer-to-peer to the marketplace model raises lender surplus, platform profits, and credit provision. At the same time, reducing lender exposure to liquidity risk can be beneficial. A counterfactual scenario where the platform resembles a bank by bearing liquidity risk has similar welfare properties as the marketplace model when liquidity is high, but results in larger lender surplus and credit provision, and only moderately lower platform profits, when liquidity is low. |
| Keywords: | Chinese financial system; Marketplace credit; structural estimation |
| JEL: | D14 D61 G21 L21 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14740&r=all |
| By: | Tamara Godoy; Jose Maria Serena; Bruno Tissot |
| Date: | 2020–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:bisifr:10&r=all |
| By: | Bakari, Sayef; Tiba, Sofien |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to treat the impact of the internet on growth for a sample in the case 4 economies of the North Africa over the period 1995-2017 using various techniques such as the ARDL bounds testing approach, Panel ARDL Model, OLS Fixed Effect, OLS Random Effect, FMOLS, 2 SLS, RLS, GLM, and GMM. Indeed, for the time series results, the ARDL highlights reported the presence of a negative impact of the internet on economic growth in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. Also, the main results of the Panel data models confirm the fact that the internet exerts a significant negative impact on growth for North Africa as a whole. These economies are invited to orient the use of the internet towards productive ways to reap the benefits of the spread of the internet and proactively enhance the prosperity in this region as a whole. |
| Keywords: | Internet use, economic growth, North Africa. |
| JEL: | O1 O11 O14 O20 O30 O38 O40 O47 O55 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100609&r=all |
| By: | Amanatidis, Dimitrios; Mylona, Ifigeneia; Mamalis, Spyridon; Kamenidou, Irene (Eirini) |
| Abstract: | Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the use of Instagram by museums in the Greek cultural scene. Specifically, the study focuses on examining the use of Instagram by museum communication professionals and aims at carrying out a twofold investigation: Firstly, if and how the Instagram is used to reach out to their visitors and secondly, the public response to this type of communication. Methods: A list of all archaeological museums in Greece was obtained and related Instagram accounts were retrieved. The dataset structure was enhanced by eleven variables, which were measured and visualized by a descriptive statistics analysis. Inter-variable correlations, normality and equality tests were also performed. Moreover, a linear predictive model for the number of museum tags was investigated. Results: Only one museum in Greece maintains an Instagram account. Visitors usually tag museum exhibits or people and exhibits on the photographs they upload on their personal accounts. T-tests and Mann-Whitney U tests revealed equal distributions for all variables between central and peripheral museums. Implications: Museum officials have not seized the opportunity offered by social media and especially Instagram today. Their importance seems to be underestimated. With respect to the linear model derived, results suggest that more features should be surveyed; this could be the subject of future research studies. |
| Keywords: | social media, communication, digital marketing, Instagram, multiple regression |
| JEL: | D83 L82 N7 |
| Date: | 2020–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100677&r=all |
| By: | Gabriel E. Kreindler (Harvard University); Yuhei Miyauchi (Boston University) |
| Abstract: | We show how commuting flows can be used to infer the spatial distribution of income within a city. We use a simple workplace choice model, which predicts a gravity equation for commuting flows whose destination fixed effects correspond to wages. We implement this method with cell phone transaction data from Dhaka and Colombo. Model-predicted income predicts separate income data, at the workplace and residential level. Unlike machine learning approaches, our method does not require training data, yet achieves comparable predictive power. In an application, we show that hartals (transportation strikes) in Dhaka lower commuting, leading to 5-8% lower predicted income. |
| JEL: | C55 E24 R14 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2020-006&r=all |
| By: | Abay,Kibrom A.; Hirfrfot,Kibrom Tafere; Woldemichael,Andinet |
| Abstract: | As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc across the world, researchers are attempting to quantify the economic fallout from the pandemic as it continues to unfold. Estimating the economic impacts of a prevailing pandemic is fraught with uncertainties about the epidemiology of the disease and the breadth of disruption of economic activities. This paper employs historical and near real-time Google search data to estimate the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on demand for selected services across 182 countries. The analysis exploits the temporal and spatial variations in the spread of the virus and finds that demand for services that require face-to-face interaction, such as hotels, restaurants and retail trade, has substantially contracted. In contrast, demand for services that can be performed remotely or provide solutions to the challenges of reduced personal interactions, such as information and communications technology (ICT), and deliveries, has increased significantly. In a span of three months, the pandemic has resulted in a 63 percent reduction in demand for hotels, while increasing demand for ICT by a comparable rate. The impacts appear to be driven by supply contractions, due to social distancing and lockdown measures, and demand shocks as consumers shelter in place, with the latter dominating for most services. The magnitude of the changes in demand varies considerably with government responses to the pandemic. |
| Keywords: | Pulp&Paper Industry,Food&Beverage Industry,Plastics&Rubber Industry,Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies,Common Carriers Industry,Textiles, Apparel&Leather Industry,Transport Services,International Trade and Trade Rules,Health Care Services Industry,ICT Economics |
| Date: | 2020–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9268&r=all |
| By: | Luisa Roa; Alejandro Correa-Bahnsen; Gabriel Suarez; Fernando Cort\'es-Tejada; Mar\'ia A. Luque; Cristi\'an Bravo |
| Abstract: | In this paper we present the impact of alternative data that originates from an app-based marketplace, in contrast to traditional bureau data, upon credit scoring models. These alternative data sources have shown themselves to be immensely powerful in predicting borrower behavior in segments traditionally underserved by banks and financial institutions. Our results, validated across two countries, show that these new sources of data are particularly useful for predicting financial behavior in low-wealth and young individuals, who are also the most likely to engage with alternative lenders. Furthermore, using the TreeSHAP method for Stochastic Gradient Boosting interpretation, our results also revealed interesting non-linear trends in the variables originating from the app, which would not normally be available to traditional banks. Our results represent an opportunity for technology companies to disrupt traditional banking by correctly identifying alternative data sources and handling this new information properly. At the same time alternative data must be carefully validated to overcome regulatory hurdles across diverse jurisdictions. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2005.14658&r=all |