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European SMEs rely predominantly on bank credit to fund investment and operating capital, with direct lending markets (bonds) and equity markets both underdeveloped across the EU compared to the US and the UK, as well as other jurisdictions. In addition, there has been a significant decline in investment during the current crisis (from 2007-2008 through present). In its Green Paper, the EU Commission sets key targets for policy interventions under the proposed Capital markets Union (CMU) that are both well-intentioned and occasionally contradictory to the stated objectives of the reforms. Crucially, however, the EU Commission presents no substantive case for the main thesis that underlies its proposed reforms, namely that greater degree of capital markets harmonisation is needed to alter the composition of sources of funding for European SMEs and to increase supply of liquidity and funding to the sector. This problem is compounded by the lack of detailed analysis of the potential impact of the measures underpinning the creation of the CMU. Absent clarity and standard risk-return analytics to support any of the policy priorities and/or proposals under the CMU, the EU Commission appears to be cherry picking specific priorities relating to investment to suit its case in favour of the CMU, without considering any other priorities, including those that should form a basis for more efficient and more effective first-best reforms.

This paper reports on a research study that aims to map the size and structure of the Co-operative and Mutual enterprise (CME) sector in Australia. The Australian CME Index (ACMEI) is a longitudinal study that can provide a better understanding of these firms and their economic and social contribution to the national economy. This year the study found a total of 1,998 active CMEs of which 82.3% were co-operatives, 13.5% mutual enterprises, 2.2% were friendly societies and 2% were member-owned superannuation funds. These firms had a combined active membership base of over 29.5 million memberships, generated more than $102.7 billion in revenue, managed over $809.7 billion in assets, and employed at least 54,841 people. They encompassed a wide range of industry sectors and provided significant economic and social benefits to their members. The report outlines these contributions and offers case studies of selected CMEs to illustrate these contributions.

Raport przedstawia sposob zarządzania ryzykiem w celu zwiekszenia wartości przedsiebiorstwa poprzez analize strategii finansowania aktywow obrotowych na przykladzie przedsiebiorstwa z branzy: produkcja papieru i wyrobow z papieru. The report shows how risk management in order to increase business value through analysis of current assets financing strategy on the example of companies in the industry: the production of paper and paper products.

This companion paper contains several extensions of the model presented in our main paper - Hagiu and Jullien (2009).

Over the years, banks have been introducing automation to their own respective cheque collection podecures. Particularily, interbank facilities and large institutions have developed automated systems using cutting age technology in which very little is done manually and at the branch level.

Individuals and businesses make billions of payments every day in various forms. Payers have choices about what forms of payment they will make, and payees also have some flexibility on what they will accept. Different forms of payment involve different costs and benefits for both the payer and the payee. Can it be unethical to use a particular form of payment? Can a payment system like bitcoin be “evil,” as charged by Krugman (2013)? Or does it provide a means for a more trustworthy means of payment? What are the ethical implications of paying workers with one form of payment, such as a fee-laden payroll card, over another? What are the ethical implications of choosing a payment tool, such as a rewards credit card, that imposes higher costs on the merchant? The differential nature of bargaining power between the users and operators of the dominant payment networks also raise ethical questions regarding the fairness of charges in such asymmetric power situations. A payment system, like any tool, is not “evil” by itself; it is the use that matters.

Zarządzanie ryzykiem w tworzeniu wartości na przykladzie przedsiebiorstw z branzy produkcja papieru i wyrobow z papieru. The aim of the study is to select the most appropriate mix of financing current assets. Choose the financing strategy that maximizes the value of the company.

In this paper I consider how the systems of private money in Venice, Amsterdam and England dealt with financial crises and raise the possibility that the institutional structure of the banking system that developed in 18th century England was particularly well adapted to addressing system-wide crises that threatened the whole financial network. In all three cases, banks extended the supply of commodity money by issuing convertible claims while operating on the basis of partial reserves, thereby creating the possibility that a bank could face an unusually high demand for deposits which its reserves could not cover. From a theoretical point of view we can consider this the problem of individual uncertainty, abstracting from the issue of aggregate uncertainty. However, a partial reserve banking system where deposits are convertible into a real good is subject also to the possibility that all banks simultaneously will face an unanticipated demand for deposits which the system as a whole is unable to meet. This is the problem of aggregate uncertainty. I investigate how each of the three systems addressed the situation of an individual bank at risk and the situation of a system-wide threat to the financial network.

This short opinion piece discusses the potential role of blockchain in the 4th industrial revolution. It explores how Satoshi Nakamoto (2008) white paper has changed the way market functions with the examples of bitcoin, public blockchain, private blockchain and Initial Crypto-Token Offering (ICO) or sometimes known as Initial Token Sales (ITS). The most powerful feature of blockchain is the sharing of asset ownerhsip and the paper describes how this is evolving with ITS.

This short paper identifies key procurement reforms undertaken in various jurisdictions for modernising public procurement, especially in the context of delivery of public services and infrastructure for smart cities. The analysis is undertaken in the backdrop of recent release of mission documents and guidelines for smart cities by the Government of India; and the paper accordingly re-emphasises the need for procurement reforms in India from efficiency and user satisfaction perspectives, rather than limiting themselves to increased transparency at the cost of these other important procurement objectives.

This paper examines the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement on multinationals' choice of input suppliers and industry profits in a host economy. The framework consists of suppliers with heterogeneous capabilities who must engage in a relation-specific investment to customize intermediate inputs upon a transfer payment by final producers. An outsourcing contract with better technologically-endowed suppliers requires a lower transfer and generates a higher surplus. Stronger IPR enforcement leads firms to self-select into better quality suppliers on average by reducing their outside option. Weak legal institutions instead make it possible for a larger range of suppliers, including the less capable ones, to form partnerships by granting them a larger outside option. A better IPR environment is more likely to harm lagging countries where the technology distribution is characterized by less capable suppliers.

On September 16, 2008 following heavy losses on its holdings of Lehman Brothers commercial paper in the wake of the Lehman bankruptcy filing, The Reserve Primary Fund "broke the buck" when its net asset value fell below the $1.00 per share target traditionally maintained by money market mutual funds (MMMFs). The resulting losses to investors in the Primary Fund sparked a panic among prime (nongovernment) MMMF investors more generally as they became aware that it was possible to lose money in accounts that were typically viewed as safe. Within a week, roughly $300 billion had been withdrawn from prime MMMFs. To arrest this run on MMMFs, the United States Treasury announced the creation of the Temporary Guarantee Program for Money Market Funds (the Guarantee Program) on September 19th. Under the Guarantee Program, participating MMMFs paid a fee in return for which Treasury agreed to protect investors from any losses on existing holdings resulting from a breaking of the buck. With the fear of losses thus removed, the run on prime MMMFs came to a halt as mass redemptions from prime MMMFs ended almost completely by the end of October. Treasury suffered no losses under the Guarantee Program and earned approximately $1.2 billion in participation fees.

International audience; In this paper the authors show that, in the presence of buyer and seller power, a monopolist can enter into a costly contractual relationship with a low-quality supplier with the sole intention of improving its bargaining position relative to a high-quality supplier, without ever selling the good produced by that firm.

There are few constants in entrepreneurship — perhaps none. That is why when something appears to be even semi-stable across meaningful periods, it is usually worth further investigation.This short paper investigates just such an apparent constant. Specifically, it is often claimed that there only are fifteen to twenty information technology companies created per year in the United States that turn out to "matter," where matter is defined as the company (relatively) promptly going from founding to $100 million in revenues. Further, and of real consequence to cities and regional economies, is that most such companies founded in any given year are thought to be in California. This paper tries to find out if the preceding is true.

Tubeless toilet paper, Green cell phones, Large scale solar power, etc., may seem as trivial inventions but these can save the environment. Each year over 17 billion cardboard toilet paper tubes are thrown away, equaling enough cardboard tubes to fill the Empire State building not once, but twice; 65,000 tons of waste consisting of metals, plastics, ceramics and contain toxic materials like brominated flame retardants and lead; and, increased efficiency of 20 percent of the existing solar panels. But then the question arises how to reward these technologies? What is the incentive for the inventors to produce such technologies? Why should investors invest in these technologies? What is it that these inventors and investors get for developing a green technology over a technology that might, if not harm, but increase the pollution and percentage of the green house gases in the environment? These are some questions that this paper aims to answer by analysing ‘Green Patenting’ in three subparts: Firstly, what actually is green patenting and the different systems that have adopted the green technologies; Secondly, what are the economics behind the green patenting; And, thirdly, the practical application and acceptance of the concept of green technology by the market.

This short paper looks at select international practices for dispute resolution in government contracts; and offers a preliminary analysis of contractual design and forum design issues for mitigating such disputes in public contracts.

Shadow banking emerged in the regulated banking system in the 1980s and 1990s when the traditional banking model became outmoded. Banking regulators encouraged shadow banking as the only way to preserve banks as viable entities in the financial system. They did not call it “shadow banking,” but rather treated it as part of the business of banking and extolled its benefits. Not until the financial crisis occurred did regulators begin the illusion of shadow banking as something sinister outside the regulated banking system. In adopting the shadow banking mythology, banking regulators deceived themselves as to the true nature of the forces that destabilized the financial system and misinformed policymakers in Congress. Now, having gained new powers to rid “systemic risk” anywhere in the financial system, they are seeking to uproot shadow banking competitors of banks that operate outside the regulated banking system. Chief among their targets is the money market fund industry, notwithstanding that money market funds are highly regulated and bear none of the key risk factors of shadow banks. This paper urges regulators to take a more introspective look at shadow banking as an invention of their own making within the regulated banking system and to avoid nullifying the positive aspects of shadow banking in their financial reform efforts.

This white paper evaluates the legal workability and constitutionality of what is frequently considered the most feasible mechanism for RGGI to use in regulating imports: an obligation on RGGI “load serving entities” (LSEs) — those companies responsible for supplying electricity to end-use customers — to purchase allowances to account for the emissions associated with the electricity they sell that is imported. Ultimately, although there are many design complexities yet to be worked out, we find that an LSE-centered approach could present a viable pathway forward for RGGI states’ regulation of imports. It is likely to create long-term price signals about the value of clean energy and to help prevent emissions “leakage.” And importantly, an LSE-centered mechanism has a good chance of being found constitutional under the dormant Commerce Clause and Federal Power Act preemption. However, an LSE-centered approach also has some features that may be considered drawbacks: it would likely increase consumer prices within RGGI without sending any immediate price signals to out-of-state generators to incentivize their emissions reductions (instead, such price signals will develop over time as new clean generation and demand-side resources come on-line). Given these features, RGGI states will want to think carefully about whether an LSE-centered imports mechanism accomplishes their goals.

The Indian financial system is not well developed and diversified. One major missing element is an active, liquid, and large debt market. In terms of outstanding issued amount, Indian debt market ranks as the third largest in Asia, next only to that of Japan and South Korea. Further, in terms of the primary issues of debt instruments, Indian market is quite large.For too long, most of the corporate entities have been depending on loans from banks and institutions and they have not shown any interest to raise at least a small of the required resources from the market through bonds or commercial paper. One of the important lessons of the recent Asian crisis was that banks did not pay any attention to protecting themselves from the currency and asset liability mismatches, especially arising from those of their domestic currency loans based on the their foreign currency borrowings. NSCCL has in place a fairly complex risk containment mechanism. Until 2nd July of this year the equity market in India followed an account period trading system under which the trades during the week were netted at the close of the trading cycles and were settled after a week.

Based on the knowledge from shipping we would like to study one option strategy for investments on shipping stocks. Since the term paper is relatively short we have chosen one market segment, namely the offshore market, and one shipping company, namely Farstad Shipping. We will use the theory of freight rates from Martin Stopford`s book, Maritime economics, and apply it to the real world. The reason for this is that the freight rates are the income for the shipping companies. Furthermore we will use the financial information from Farstad Shipping to see what the value of Farstad Shipping stocks should be in the future. This we will do based on the freight rates in the offshore market. The method which will be used is financial analysis methods. The last object of this is to use the theory of one option strategy that deals with volatility – since the shipping industry is extremely volatile - based on the information from financial analysis to see whether we should buy a Put or a Call or both.

Each citizen belongs to several communities embedded in each other like Russian dolls. We argue that each community should have its own currency. And citizens will carry several currencies in their wallet. It will prevent absurd situations like today Greece borrowing money from Germany for its domestic activities. And it will lead to a much easier equilibrium of balances of payments at every level of geographic split of regions. The idea was intractable when the money used for everyday expenditures was metal and paper based, but it is no longer the case with the advent of no contact payment systems with mobile telephones and very large databases systems like Google adsense.

This short paper reviews the role the Partial Risk Guarantee (PRG) mechanism may play in providing payment guarantee or what is termed "securitization" in Nigerian energy terms as far as the electric power sector is concerned.It looks at how the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria are working together to improve the electric power sector as no investor is willing to invest risk capital without some form of assurance, that it would get paid for services rendered and even make some profit.

In this short paper we present a simple model of three tourist regions to study the incentives of hotels to invest in environmental quality. In particular, we show that the price of a hotel room depends positively on the level of investment to preserve the natural characteristics of the region and negatively on the relative investments of the other regions. In this sense, we show that to maintain the tourist demand for rooms the hotels must invest continuously in environmental quality. Regions with low investment in preserving environmental quality have a high probability of disappearing as a tourist destination. We also show that the incentive to invest in environmental quality is a decreasing function of the number of hotels located in a particular region and that the incentive of hotel chains to invest in environmental quality is dependent on whether they are local or international.

India always witnesses for its culture; Handloom sector has unique position in socio economic structure of Jammu and Kashmir. The Handicraft sector is an intensive non-farm labor sector which makes a significant contribution to the GDP of the UT. These sectors provide direct or indirect employment to the workers especially belonging to the backward and economically weaker sections of the society. India is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of handicraft. According to the Handloom and Handcraft policy 2020 for wool production, India’s export stood at 26,590 crore between 2018-2019.This paper enlists about the demand of Indian utilitarianism and indigenous crafts in international markets and to improve and encourage the conventional market exporters. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of various E commerce factors on the export of handloom and handicraft produced in the state of Jammu and Kashmir during the year 2018-2019. In this paper an e-commerce model is proposed to improve the export of Indian handloom and handicraft products in all over the world.

Bangladesh, a small south Asian country, holds the second position in the world of exporting readymade garments (RMG). Here locate the highest number of green RMG factories in the world. Green industrialization is the positive symbol of sustainable development. This paper represents an impressive illustration of the scenario of RMG industries in Bangladesh especially the growth, contribution to export and the success of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) recognized Platinum, Gold and Silver factories. This paper also represents the success of green revolution in RMG industries in Bangladesh and recommends some suggestions to convert the traditional industries to green industries where the industries are not only for making profit but also committed to provide good working environment for employee, eco-friendly and ethical business practice.

PURPOSE – This paper aims to shed light on the use of precious metals, precious stones, or jewels as an alternate currency by criminals, and discuss the various anti-money laundering programmes that dealers in precious metals, precious stones, or jewels, and banks are required to put in place, to mitigate money laundering risk(s).. This is particularly notable in the case of gold companies used by criminal enterprises engaged in drug trafficking, (i.e., the trade of gold for drugs). Gold companies are also used by such criminals for wealth movement, storage and preservation, and use as a status symbol. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – This paper uses the “FinCEN Files” to illustrate the vulnerability of the banking system and the gold and diamond industry to money laundering, and to solidify the hypothesis that effective implementation of anti-money laundering measures, including customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, recordkeeping, account monitoring and suspicious activity reporting with artificial intelligence enabled systems can help flag illicit funds before they are fully integrated into the society. FINDINGS – This paper determined that dealers in precious metals, precious stones, or jewels and banks may be able to detect illicit funds if they implement an anti-money laundering program that, at a minimum, provided for: (a) procedures for using all available information to determine and verify name, address, social security or taxpayer identification number, and other identifying information for a person; (b) procedures for using all available information to determine the occurrence of any transactions or patterns of transactions required to be reported as suspicious; (c) procedures for using all available information to determine whether any records must be made and maintained pursuant to the United States Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the Nigerian Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended); (d) independent testing of the anti-money laundering program of banks and dealers in precious metals, precious stones, or jewels; (e) training of personnel; and (f) the designation of an individual or individuals responsible for assuring day-to-day compliance. ORIGINALITY/VALUE – This paper uses the “FinCEN files” to help build awareness with the regulatory, enforcement and customs authorities as well as reporting entities about the money laundering risks and vulnerabilities of precious metals, precious stones, or jewels, and how to mitigate them. This paper recommends the use of artificial intelligence enabled systems with risk-based measures. This is the only Article to adopt this kind of approach.

In this paper we discuss the economic considerations related to the Trademarks and how it affects the various related aspects. Trademarks form an important intellectual property for an organisation. Therefore, it becomes significant to discuss how trademarks affect brands. Trademarks are key when we talk about the global economy as well as market economy. The last few years has witnessed a steep increase in the number of trademarks being filed. Companies have been cautious as trademarks are now considered as a safe and long-term asset. Trademarks are also used in various industries to create monopolies. A point of differentiation is created when companies wisely use and deploy trademarks. Counterfeiting of trademarks is another aspect covered in this paper.

This paper empirically models the dynamics of Brazilian government bond (BGB) yields based on monthly macroeconomic data, in the context of the evolution of the key macroeconomic variables in Brazil. The results show that the current short-term interest rate has a decisive influence on the long-term interest rate on BGBs, after controlling for various key macroeconomic variables, such as inflation and industrial production. These findings support John Maynard Keynes’s claim that the central bank’s actions influence the long-term interest rate on government bonds mainly through the current short-term interest rate. These findings have important policy implications for Brazil. This paper relates the findings of the estimated models to ongoing debates in fiscal and monetary policies.

The banking sector could be the backbone of the Indian economy. In today’s era, technology support is incredibly necessary for the triple-crown functioning of the banking sector. While not IT and communication, we tend to cannot accept the success and growth of the industry and economy, it’s enlarged the role of the banking sector within the Indian economy. Run batted in new rules and supporting new technology and innovation for the client within the banks. The Indian banking sector was introduced the RTGS, mobile banking, Digital Wallets, UPI, Blockchain Technology, computing, Cloud Banking, wearable Technology, Omnichannel Banking, the point of sale, square measure numerous innovations within the Indian banking sector. This paper highlights the information technology in the Indian banking sector. This paper is descriptive. Secondary information square measures collected from numerous websites, reports, and journals.

Bitcoin, conceived by the pseudonymous software developer Satoshi Nakomoto, is the world’s first cryptocurrency. This invention of peer-to-peer electronic cash has trigerred a series of apprehension in the financial world. The fact that it has enabled alternative means of transacting to conventional banking has steered a new source of stress within the financial arena. Bitcoin, in terms of technology and currency, has been defined in many ways. Albeit Paul Vigna and Michael Casey describe it as borderless, pseudo-anonymous, decentralised, and outside of regulatory monetary systems, other researches also suggest that these attributes potentially give rise for criminals to evade law enforcement. The focal point of this paper is to provide an insight on the emergence of illicit financial crimes particularly through money laundering, caused by the increasing use of bitcoins. The research paper explicates on two very common ways for “bitcoin laundering” namely: either through bitcoin mixes or bitcoin exchanges or by using both methods. The risk of money laundering is facilitated by the anonymous feature of bitcoin especially when coupled with sophisticated money laundering services, also known as bitcoin mixing, provided on the Darknet. The second strategy of cashing-out dirty bitcoin through bitcoin exchanges unfolds the issue of regulated and unregulated bitcoin exchanges businesses. The other issue with bitcoin exchanges is that they have now turned to a new shadow banking system of doing off-chain transactions on behalf of their customers to outsiders without any regulations in place. The process of laundering money through bitcoin has become easier and accessible to a greater audience, especially when existing laws are not being applied appropriately. In this context, this paper is of the view that the European Union is the best platform to study cybercrimes, especially crimes related to bitcoin. This paper shall discuss the existing legal and regulatory frameworks provided by the European Union to curb cybercrimes but also, by illustrating the attempts (and the lack of attempts) made by the English and German governments to regulate risks of cybercrimes posed by cryptocurrency.

This paper is a research to study the use of cryptocurrencies in money laundering and terrorism financing, these currencies are decentralized currencies, and they are also virtual and convertible and were created on the basis of cryptography. They have been gaining reputation as a means of payment offered to enterprises and customers, and as substitutes and competitors for the traditional centrally controlled fiat currencies issued by governments. Our first point was the fact that its increasing popularity has been attracting scholars and governments because of anti-money laundering concerns. We argue on the fact that there are high potential benefits for criminals, because of its known uses in money laundering and the neglected fact that these currencies are used as money laundering instruments. To study these issues, the paper will study these currencies as a whole and then will study the structure of money laundering and anti-money laundering processes, this will help us to get an idea on money laundering and its use in terrorism financing and information regarding the influence cryptocurrencies have on money laundering process and the incentives they offer to criminals for them to utilize crypto in money laundering. This aims to answer a very big question, whether cryptocurrencies are being used in money laundering and terrorism financing.

This research paper would highlight the significance of the media and entertainment industry consists of film, print, radio, and television. These segments include movies, TV shows, radio shows, news, music, newspapers, magazines, and books. The Government of India has supported Media and Entertainment industry’s growth by taking various initiatives such as digitising the cable distribution sector to attract greater institutional funding, increasing FDI limit from 74 per cent to 100 per cent in cable and DTH satellite platforms, and granting industry status to the film industry for easy access to institutional finance. In this paper to revise the fluctuations in share prices of selected companies, Stock market is a market where a number of securities are traded such as equity shares, debentures, bonds, insurance products, mutual funds etc. mostly the existing securities are traded in this market. India has one of the oldest stock markets in Asia and this stock exchange is the Bombay Stock Exchange which was established in 1875.

Consumers can buy concert tickets from primary platforms (e.g., Ticketmaster) or from consumer-to-consumer resale platforms (e.g., StubHub). Recently, Ticketmaster has entered and been trying to control the resale market by prohibiting consumers from reselling on competing resale platforms. Several states in the U.S. have passed or are discussing laws requiring tickets to be transferrable on any resale sites, worrying that platform integration—Ticketmaster controlling both the primary and the resale platforms—will increase ticket service fees and harm musicians and consumers. This paper establishes a game-theoretic framework and shows that the opposite can happen: platform integration can lower the service fees in both markets, alleviating double marginalization in the primary market and benefiting the musician and consumers. Moreover, with platform integration, the presence of a small number of scalpers can counterintuitively reduce the ticket price and benefit the musicians and consumers. Additionally, platform competition in the resale market may harm consumers. This paper further shows that these insights apply in other markets, e.g., used-good or peer-to-peer product-sharing markets, and provides suggestive empirical support for the theoretical results.

Bitcoin is a digital cryptocurrency that has attracted substantial interest in recent years from the general public, profit seekers, risk takers, academic practitioners, and, last but not least, economists. Although it is referred to as new, Bitcoin has existed since 2009 and is rooted in technology that goes back even farther. It was the first established cryptocurrency, with the first trade in 2010. Since 2015, Bitcoin has attracted even more attention because of its increase in value and volume of exchange. The Bitcoin system maintains a global, distributed cryptographic ledger of transactions, or blockchain, through a consensus algorithm running on hardware scattered around the world. This paper discusses the nature of cryptocurrency and blockchain, how it works, and the present status of Bitcoin blockchain in different countries around the world. The paper also includes a review of literature on Bitcoin engineering, Bitcoin as currency and the cryptocurrency system, related work on queuing theory, and work on competition and monopoly. The paper explores three possible outcomes with regard to the future prospects of Bitcoin. The various aspects of this technology are yet to be revealed in detail, but the authors hope that this simple, basic, and narrative paper will be helpful to those seeking basic references regarding this newest issue.

Virtual Currency (VC) is an electronic currency that is neither government-funded nor backed by central bank. VC offers potential benefits over traditional currencies, including lower transaction fees and faster transfer of funds for services provided. In 2013, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), defined virtual currency as “a medium of exchange that operates like a currency in some environments, but does not have all the attributes of real currency. In particular, virtual currency does not have legal tender status in any jurisdiction”. Some virtual currencies are used as a currency in online games or a digital world, however, there is no equivalent value in fiat currency for them, so named non-convertible. In the other side, a virtual currency that can be bought with and sold back for legal tender is called a convertible currency. One of the most popular type of convertible VCs is cryptocurrencies. They use security mechanisms such as cryptography for creating units of the currency and controlling the transactions. Cryptocurrency works based on Blockchain technology. Its main property is to provide anonymity for the transactions. Bitcoin, as an instance, is a cryptocurrency that has gained much attention in the market since 2009 when it was initially introduced. Since the focus of this paper is on cryptocurrency, which is a convertible virtual currency, we will use the term cryptocurrency and virtual currency or VC interchangeably with the cryptocurrency meaning. Unlike earlier digital currencies, like e-gold, that had centralized architecture, the newer virtual currency networks are completely decentralized, with all parts of transactions performed by the users of the system. So usually cryptocurrencies use peer-to-peer technologies and no traditional financial institutions involved in transactions. This unique property provides different levels of anonymity for the users. The emergence of virtual currencies presents challenges to federal agencies responsible for financial regulation, law enforcement, consumer and investor protection. These challenges stem partly from certain characteristics of virtual currencies, such as the higher degree of anonymity they provide and the ease with which they can be sent across borders. VC also has raised concerns that they might be used to finance terrorism and to engage in other criminal activities such as money laundering and tax evasion. In this paper, we present our research on the legal issues of the cryptocurrency by analyzing the current regulations and discuss about possible solutions for the future of cryptocurrency.

Not long ago Gold was a universal legal tender. Governments held it in forts. The bank’s kept it in a safe. It was the most precious of precious metals. And investors bought gold for safety’s sake, when markets and economies crashed and the value of paper currency was in doubt. But that was a long time ago. Gold, after all, is hardly a functional commodity. If it had any major purpose, it wouldn’t be stored in vaults around the world. But, anyway it’s traded with aplomb. As we move into an ever-tech savvy world, gold has more competition: namely the digital crypto currencies such as Ethereum, that cater to the new generation of skeptics. The crypto currency market touts itself as an alternative to the currency markets and a hedge against inflation. The digital currency values, like gold, are based on the confidence of the buyer, nothing more. Gold prices dropped 2 percent in February 2018, as the U.S. dollar strengthened and the new U.S. Federal Reserve chairman fueled views that the U.S. central bank would raise rates four times this year rather than three times as was unofficially reported in January. The Gold Monetization Scheme is a wonderful concept of monetising domestic idle gold and using it for the import substitution as well as giving a fillip to ETF’s and reduction in the CAD. The present paper is attempts to critically evaluate the GMS with reference to the ever volatile gold bullion prices and the global trade wars that have erupted after the election of Donald Trump as the US president and Mr Xi Jinping consolidating his control over the PRC.

Can eliminating large denomination bills improve social welfare? We construct a dual currency model to study whether illegal activity can be reduced or eliminated by modifying the payment environment. In our model, there are two types of money, "coins" (small bills) and "paper money" (large bills) and two types of goods, legal and illegal. Legal (goods) traders are ex ante indifferent between coins and paper money, but illegal (goods) traders face a lower transaction cost of using paper money in comparison to coins because illegal trade is easier to conceal. Eliminating paper money can reduce illegal trade and the social cost associated with illegal activity. However, this pooling equilibrium is suboptimal because the government can collect more seigniorage by allowing illegal traders to use paper money with a lower rate of return. When the transaction cost of using coins for illegal traders is sufficiently large, a separating equilibrium, where legal traders use coins and illegal traders use paper money, can maximize welfare by making an implicit transfer from the illegal traders to the legal traders. In short, an optimal monetary policy is a sort of Pigouvian policy in which the monetary authority engineers a transfer from illegal traders to legal traders.

The advent of blockchain technology will, in future, usher in a long-awaited shift away from paper bills of lading. Several maritime hubs, including Singapore, are exploring the possibility of digitalising trade and maritime documentation, such as bills of lading, using blockchain technology. However, there is still considerable uncertainty concerning the legal value of blockchain bills of lading, as with other electronic bills of lading. This paper analyses why electronic bills of lading on the registry model are not suitable for use as bills of lading in Common Law jurisdictions and discusses the suitability of blockchain bills of lading. The adoption of the MLETR may provide a legal regime for blockchain bills of lading. Key articles of the MLETR are considered, leading to a proposal for an amended version. This will entrench a sustainable, resilient and robust framework that will prepare Common Law jurisdictions for the new technological age in the shipping industry.

Money was invented to address the difficulty in the double coincidence of wants between the supply and demand when people exchanged their goods and services. There are two information states in society: one is the initial state that people have goods and services due to the division of labor; the other is the final state that people have different goods and services with the initial state due to the exchange of goods and services between them. The process is that the initial state is changed to the final state with the help of money. Because the direct exchanges of goods and services are difficult to achieve the double coincidence of wants in time and space, it can be achieved with the help of money which is as a medium and bridge. In this paper, the changing process of the state information is analyzed through the matrix representation of money, and then the nature of money with a kind of information of reliable ledger is more apparently shown. This paper also analyzes the common characteristics of physical money, electronic money and digital currency, that is, reliable ledger and explores the future trend of money development from the perspective of history and security technology of money.

This paper, written together with G. Hendrikx, assesses the manner in which the Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 of 24 July 2015 establishing a guideline on capacity allocation and congestion management (“CACM”) alters the legal context within which power exchanges (“PXs”) perform their activities. By submitting the cooperation among the newly introduced NEMO-entities, and between these NEMOs and TSOs, regarding market coupling to a new set of rules, CACM affects the market coupling activities of PXs in different ways. This paper in particular examines from the power exchanges perspective (1) the need for the increased regulation introduced by CACM, (2) how CACM affects the activities of PXs in the context of market coupling and (3) whether CACM contributes to a better governance of market coupling.

Business Data Services (BDS) have been growing at almost 15% per year for a decade and a half, driven by the fact that high capacity, high quality, always on connections are vital to a wide range of businesses and economic activities. Affected services include not only communications – mobile, broadband and video – but all forms of high capacity connection for hospitals, ubiquitous networks like ATMs, and the evolving in the Internet of Things. The point at which the ocean of data coursing through the digital network becomes a stream directed to each individual consumer is the new chokepoint in the communications network. This paper uses a traditional antitrust approach embedded in the structure-conduct-performance paradigm to describe the industrial organization of the digital communications sector. It argues that the inherent economic conditions in communications markets combined with a long period of lax antitrust enforcement and weak regulation to allow the emergence of a “Tight Oligopoly on Steroids” in which BDS plays a central role. High concentration is a problem, but the problem is magnified by several other characteristics that are well recognized in the antitrust literature. The same four firms constitute the tight oligopoly across four communications product markets, meaning that the number of firms needed to engage in parallel and reciprocal conduct is very small. Their history prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and their pattern of expansion since have resulted in geographic separation of home (fortress) territories, technological specialization, and product segmentation. This enables them to dampen rivalry. The paper documents the severe and unique problem in the BDS market through three sets of data -- the evidentiary record compiled in the FCC’s decade long Special Access proceeding, the FCC’s reading of that data in a Final Rule and FNPRM, and a unique data set from New York that sheds light on the BDS market in the largest state served by Verizon that fills gaps in the record. The data shows that the BDS market is not only one of the most concentrated markets in the entire digital communications sector (with CR4 values close to 100% and HHI indices in the range of 6000 to 7000), but also that it is rife with the abuse of market power. Analysis of price, cost and profit shows that market power is being exercised to yield excess prices that produce profits that are not merely “supranormal,” but persistent and astronomical. Analysis of contracting, bundling, and other qualitative conduct indicates that market power is being exercised along both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The paper concludes with a brief critique of the fundamental flaws in the recent FCC Flip-Flop order that sweeps 20 years of abuse under the rug and ensures the abuses will continue because it is based on the same theory of potential competition that has failed for the past two decades. The radical theory of potential competition adopted by the FCC bears a striking resemblance to an earlier discredited theory of hypothetical competition (perfect contestability) that did a great deal of policy harm before rigorous empirical analysis proved it was inapplicable to the real world. In this case, the FCC has the empirical record before it, but failed to read that record in a reasonable manner. The FCC’s declaration that it is "time for and new start," is correct, but this analysis shows that by ignoring the empirical record, disregarding well-established analytic models and violating legally mandated administrative procedures the FCC has headed in the wrong direction.

Firms in many industries engage in price obfuscation—tactics that intentionally make prices more difficult for consumers to discern. Although existing research has focused on the short-term financial gains that motivate firms to obfuscate, reputational concerns may at least partially counteract these incentives if consumers punish deceptive firms via loss of loyalty in future transactions and/or publicly observable negative feedback. This paper addresses the latter possibility, exploring the impact of mandatory shrouded surcharges on firm reputation in the U.S. hotel industry. Using data collected from two major online travel sites, I exploit differences in surcharge disclosure across booking channels to identify the causal effect of hidden “resort fees” on traveler ratings. I find that hidden fees decrease ratings by roughly 0.15 points (on a rating scale ranging from 1 to 5). The magnitude of this effect varies based on firm characteristics, and this variation is consistent with observed heterogeneity in resort fee adoption patterns: when the expected punishment is more severe, firms are substantially less likely to adopt shrouded surcharges. Results shed light on the extent to which reputational mechanisms may act as a check against price obfuscation and other similar practices intended to exploit boundedly rational consumers. This paper was accepted by Eric Anderson, marketing.

This paper provides an exhaustive literature review of the motives for public-to-private LBO transactions. First, the paper develops the theoretical framework for the potential sources of value creation from going private: a distinction is made between the reduction in agency costs, stakeholder wealth transfers, tax benefits, transaction costs savings, takeover defense strategies, and corporate undervaluation. The paper then reviews and summarizes whether and how these theories have been empirically verified in the four different strands of literature in LBO research. These strands of literature are categorized by phase in the LBO transaction: Intent (of a buyout), Impact (of the LBO on the various stakeholders), Process (of restructuring after the leveraged buyout) and Duration (of retaining the private status). Then, the paper shows that in the first half of the 2000s, a public-to-private LBO wave re-emerged in the US, UK and Continental Europe, whose value vastly exceeded that of the 1980s US LBO wave. Finally, the paper provides suggestions for further research.

Financial Derivatives comprising mainly of futures and options have been around in India since a long time. Though both equity and currency options have been in existence in India for quite some time now, it is only recently that commodity options have been sought to be introduced in our country. This paper attempts to study the rationale for such a move at this point in time and the way forward. It is hoped that this paper will go a long way in adding to the current debate on whether this is indeed the correct stage in the Indian financial system to commence commodity options. Second and more importantly, we study the critical issue of determining the underlying for commodity options. Specifically, we examine how commodity options should devolve – whether on futures, spot (physical commodity) or be settled in cash and offer a few suggestions.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are becoming recognized as a way to stimulate economic growth, innovation, and social change. Their implementation is gaining momentum across the United States and other parts of the world as their benefits are recognized. Nations, cities, regions, universities, and others are collaborating to put in place entrepreneurial ecosystems as a critical component of their innovation strategies seeking to improve economies, societies, and institutions. Innovation Districts, Smart City Infrastructures, research parks, coworking spaces, and regional economic clusters are examples of economic development investments that are being made by many, yet it is well recognized that much of the value comes from the personal collisions and relationships that are possible because of the physical proximity, information exchange, and density they create. Using the metropolitan areas of St. Louis and Kansas City, this paper provides insights into how regions can accelerate momentum and increase their return on these investments. The paper focuses on Entrepreneur Development organizations, which provide the first step in any ecosystem's startup pipeline and feed and strengthen Venture and Economic Development to achieve economic outcomes.

This paper tries to explore the present status of CSR spending mandated by section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 by NSE Nifty 200 companies by using simple percentage analysis. It is found that most of the selected companies are adhering to the CSR policy of allocating 2% of their average three years’ pretax profits. Overall an average of Rs. 6054.02 that is (1.86%) out of 2% limit has been spent; whereas, remaining Rs.1023.93 (0.31%) is kept unspent. Some companies like GAIL India Ltd. even spend more than 2% of their Average pretax profits and some companies had CSR amount unspent. The state wise classification, of CSR activities, showed most of the companies concentrated their CSR activities only on few developed States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. showing region wise disparity in the implementation of CSR activities. Industry wise, analysis of CSR activities showed that electricity and manufacturing industries spent more than the actual CSR expenditure to be incurred. Whereas, other industries like financial service, mining, constructions and real estate, services (other than financial) left part of their CSR amount unspent. Manufacturing industries tops the contribution on a broad set of issues like education, health care and sanitization, sustainable livelihood, social causes and others. Out of NSE 200 companies, Reliance Industries Ltd. tops the list with highest CSR spending. Reliance Industries Ltd. had allocated had allocated 0.34% and 84% more than the two percent of CSR expenditure to be incurred as per the Companies Act, 2013. The study tries to put forward the need for the compulsory spending of the allocated CSR amount and also the proportionate distribution of CSR amount and activities among all states and union territories without sticking to the local areas where they operate. The paper suggests policy changes and amendment to the section 135 of the Companies Act in order to promote balanced regional growth and development throughout Indian States and Union territories.

Telecommunications constitutes a very important aspect of today’s economic framework. However, establishing the necessary telecom infrastructure is capital-intensive for new telecom service providers (TSP) seeking to enter a particular market. In order to facilitate market access for other TSPs, one regulatory approach has been to mandate the incumbent TSPs to share their infrastructure with new entrants. While this regulatory approach can bring positive benefits such as increased teledensity, lower costs for consumers, etc, these benefits are of a short term nature and would outweigh the long-term economic costs such as the establishment of a strong domestic industry if the particular market is yet to obtain maturity. Also, infrastructure sharing is more geared towards the interests of global TSPs by facilitating their entry into new markets. It is no wonder then that efforts are being made at the multilateral trading system for making infrastructure sharing mandatory across all countries. The TPP is the latest in the series of FTAs aimed at making infrastructure sharing mandatory in the telecom sector. Even though the TPP is effectively dead, the topic of infrastructure sharing is gaining traction in the context of ecommerce discussions at the WTO. Given the technical nature of the issue, and the wide ramifications for domestic policy space, especially for developing countries, it is imperative to have a better understanding of the topic. This paper is an attempt in this direction. This paper concludes by stating that the decision to facilitate market access for global TSPs should be driven by domestic imperatives rather than global commercial considerations.

The aim of this paper is to develop a macroeconometric model for emerging economies as in the case of Bahrain (the most open economy in GCC region) to measure the impact of human capital investment on key macroeconomic indicators (1990 through 2016). The paper also makes an attempt to forecast the effects of changes in government spending on education as a percentage of GDP on the country’s key macroeconomic variables through simulation under 3 different scenarios for the next five years. The main findings point out that an increase in government spending on education over time has a positive influence on human capital in terms of increased employment along with positive effect on output, private investments and consumption whilst contributing to lower inflation rate.

In spite of the apparent lack of success of international emission trading under the Kyoto Protocol, numerous jurisdictions are implementing mitigation mechanisms that put a price on carbon, whether by taxing activities that cause release of carbon to the atmosphere, or by creating markets through which the cost of atmospheric release of carbon is internalised to the relevant activities by way of emission trading schemes. These diverse and heterogeneous mechanisms – in particular the emission trading schemes – might achieve greater efficiency, larger scale, and other benefits, were they to be connected. Against this background, this paper sets out a proposal for a conceptual model for the networking of emission trading schemes, built on the architecture of distributed ledger technology. In this way, it is argued, the interconnection of these emission trading schemes might be achieved flexibly, cost effectively and efficiently, while taking account of the requirements for cooperative approaches, evidenced in the Paris Agreement. The purpose of the paper is to stimulate, and provide a starting point for, more detailed, intensive discussion of what the technical requirements might be of some such scheme.

Mobile money systems, platforms built and managed by mobile network operators to allow money to be stored as digital currency, have burgeoned in the developing world as a mechanism to transfer money electronically. Mobile money agents exchange cash for electronic value and vice versa, forming the backbone of an emerging electronic currency ecosystem that has potential to connect millions of poor and “unbanked” people to the formal financial system. Unfortunately, low service levels due to agent inventory management are a major impediment to the further development of these ecosystems. This paper describes models for the agent’s inventory problem, unique in that sales of electronic value (cash) correspond to an equivalent increase in inventory of cash (electronic value). This paper presents a base inventory model and an analytical heuristic that are used to determine optimal stocking levels for cash and electronic value given an agent’s historical demand. When tested with a large sample of transaction-level data provided by an East African mobile operator, both the base model and the heuristic improved agent profitability by reducing inventory costs (defined here as the sum of stockout losses and cost of capital associated with holding inventory). The heuristic increased estimated agent profits by 15% relative to profits realized through agents actual decisions, while also offering substantial computational advantages relative to the base model.