General properties of exchange rate of national money versus some foreign currencies in Albania

In this work we have considered the study of the exchange rate series for the specific case where the formal financial market is not active. In those situations, we would be interested in the parallelization of the exchange rate with financial indexes for stabilized financial market. We observed that the stationarity of the distribution for some the exchange rate of currencies traded in the country differs significantly. The time dynamics shows the presence of the elements of local critical behavior, but those tendencies attenuate and fade away in an a periodic fashion. Next, we considered and evidenced the correlation distances and dissimilarity between exchange rates of national currencies versus euro and dollar and golden prices. It resulted that two exchange rates do have different distance from golden price taken for references. The correlation distance between the series of the return in different period has evidenced that there is not a regular behavior in this respect.

Digitalization of the National Currency: World and Domestic Experience

The article examines the theoretical aspects of the concept of «digital currency» are studied, the main differences between digital currency and cryptocurrency are indicated. The concept of the digital national currency of the People's Republic of China, the digital yuan, has been predicted and the results of the ongoing digitalization have been identified, which in the future, if the digital yuan project is successfully implemented, will lead to the abandonment of cash. The theoretical aspects of the concept of «digital ruble» are studied, the main differences between the existing forms of money in the Russian economy are outlined: cash, non-cash money and digital money. Based on the study of the re-port presented by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, potential options for the technical implementation of digital currency within the existing monetary system were identified, and their characteristics were also presented. An assessment of the expected result of the implementation of the concept of the digital ruble is given: the potential ad-vantages and risks of the digital ruble are identified and their comprehensive analysis is carried out. It is concluded that the process of digitalization of national currencies is relevant for the world community, being an indicator of the high level of development of the country's economy. The result of the analysis of the digital ruble project presented in the report of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is the conclusion about the ambiguity of its implementation at the current level of economic development of our country.

Why is Bitcoin not Money? A Post-Keynesian view

Bitcoin got increasing popularity and was considered by the public as a great investment due to huge overvaluation in 2017. In parallel, economists and high-level technicians started to advocate the use of bitcoin and other cryptographic currencies as an alternative to national currencies. However, bitcoin is far from being considered as money, so it is hard for a monetary and payment system to emerge based on these technologies. This paper, apart from briefly presenting the Bitcoin System, shows why bitcoin is not money in the light of the Keynesian theory. We use Keynesian essential properties of Money and Modern Money Theory to define money, and to show that cryptographic currencies are not money. We then go back to Keynes' theory of portfolio choice, established in Chapter 17 of the General Theory, to show what bitcoin really is: at most, bitcoin is a perfect virtual commodity, a virtual liquid speculative asset.

Economic and Technical Modeling of the Lebanese Crypto Currency: Implication for a Digital-Lira (DL)

Since 1997, the Lebanese pound has been pegged to the U.S dollar at a fixed rate, and at every crisis, people rush to banks to convert their LBP accounts into U.S.D causing a high demand for foreign currencies. Fear and uncertainty finds its way to the market, and the general sentiment often causes various sectors of the economy to be negatively affected. Lebanon is highly dependent on the U.S.D and the LBP had slowly become nothing but a symbol of independence and a heritage that tells the story of “Lebanon”. This paper will examine the century’s most aspiring technology to see how it can be implemented to create a new form of national currencies, and how such a technology can incorporate basic to complex monetary policies in an automated manner to gain value, and have a controlled inflation through a pre-programmed system. This paper will also break down the “Bitcoin” conditions and show how it can be modified to fit a locally produced national crypto-currency for Lebanon that will be referred to as “Digi-Lira”. Finally, this paper will highlight the economic impact of the Digi-Lira on demand, investment, international trade, remittances, the unbanked population, and the banking sector.

Privatizing Cash: Currency and Public Goods in Sweden

Across the world, national currencies—public goods that emerged out of a previous era of currency proliferation—are now competing with private alternatives. As paper and coins fall into disuse, the seigniorage that helps to fund the circulation and regulation of currency diminishes, while their capacity to bind together states and citizens decreases in equal measure. The Swedish central bank’s response to these threats, which includes issuing the world’s first national digital currency, charts a course that all central banks must consider in the near future.

The health care sector in the economies of the European Union: an overview using an input–output framework

Background This study aims to analyse the relative importance of the health care sector (health care activities and services), its interrelations with the rest of productive activities, aggregate supply and demand, employment requirements and apparent labour productivity in the European Union (EU) economy as a whole, and in the economies of member countries. Methods The methodology used is based on input–output analysis. Data are extracted from National Accounts and, specifically, from the input–output framework for 2010. Data in national currencies are adjusted using as a conversion factor, specific purchasing power parities for health. Results In the EU, market production predominates in the provision of health care activities, which are financed mainly by public funding. However, there is significant variability among countries, and, in fact, non-market production predominates in most EU countries. The health care sector has direct backward and forward linkages lower than the average for all sectors of the economy and the average for the services sector. Thus, this sector is relatively independent of the rest of the productive structure in the EU. The health care activities industry is key because of its ability to generate value added and employment. Regarding apparent labour productivity, there are significant differences among EU countries, showing that productivity is positively related to the weight of market production in health care activities and negatively related to the number of hours worked per person employed. Conclusions Our results provide useful insights for health authorities in the EU, as they analyse the effect of health policies on macroeconomic indicators using an input–output framework, as well as comparing these effects with those in EU member countries. To the best of our knowledge, an analysis of the health care sector in the EU economy and the countries that integrate it using an input–output framework has not been undertaken. In addition, to compare health care expenditure between countries, data in national currencies have been adjusted using specific purchasing power parities for “health”, and not ones referring to the total economy (GDP), which is common practice in many previous studies.

Central Banks Digital Currencies: World Experience

Received 28.07.2020. The article examines issues related to the introduction of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) for retail payments and wholesale settlements. The study defines and classifies central bank digital currencies, researches the main models of CBDC systems. The article also analyzes the features of various national projects for issuing Central bank digital currencies. The paper uses methods of economic-statistical and functional-structural analysis. The study concludes that CBDC are a new form of central bank money. Digital currencies can be issued in various issuing systems for the purpose of retail payments or wholesale settlements. Among the models of CBDC systems for retail payments (R-CBDC) the direct system model is the most attractive for its simplicity. This model eliminates the dependence of the Central bank on any financial and payment intermediaries. Models of synthetic and hybrid R-CBDC systems are characterized by reliability and speed in processing multiple transactions which makes them the most promising for implementation. Among the models of CBDC systems for wholesale payments (W-CBDC) the model of the system with a universal digital currency (U-W-CBDC) may be the most suitable for eliminating the main disadvantages of modern cross-border payment systems. However, a large number of technological and financial changes as well as the high operating costs of the U-W-CBDC can make such systems difficult to implement for non-developed financial market infrastructure countries. National financial regulators have different motivations for issuing digital currencies. The main advantages of digital currencies for retail payments may consist in providing users with highly liquid, low-risk, universally available means of payment. The main advantages of wholesale digital currencies are that they offer faster, safer, cheaper cross-border payments. The most advanced projects for issuing R-CBDC can be considered DCEP (People’s Bank of China) E-krona (Central Bank of Sweden). The most successful pilot projects for issuing W-CBDC are the projects Jasper (Central Bank of Canada) and Ubin (Monetary Authority of Singapore), which were able to achieve interoperability in conducting cross-border payments. Currently most CBDC are retail based on the use of distributed ledger technology and implemented in the form of DLT-tokens. Countries that develop digital currency systems can be divided into three groups. The first group is countries where the introduction of CBDC can be designed to support the national demand for central bank money (Sweden, Norway, Singapore, etc.). The second group – countries for which the adoption of digital currencies can afford to keep the place of national currencies in international settlements (USA and EU) or expanding the use of national currencies at the international level (China). The third group represents countries for which the introduction of digital currencies may be associated with the control of national monetary circulation and de-dollarization of the financial system (Uruguay, South Africa, Cambodia, etc.).