CRYPTOCURRENCIES OR CAPITAL MARKETS. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF INVESTMENT EFFICIENCY IN 2011-2020

Cryptocurrencies have become an important element of the global financial system and a frequent investment tool in the last decade. The aim of this paper is to compare the efficiency of investments in the cryptocurrency market with investments in global capital markets. The study used the quotations of the analyzed instruments in the years 2011-2020. The investment efficiency was estimated using Sharpe and Sortino ratios. Research has shown that investments in cryptocurrencies were the most effective. They brought, on average, the highest daily rates of return, but on the other hand, they were characterized by the highest risk. Such a result could have been significantly influenced by the widespread persistence of ultra-low interest rates and a decline in the attractiveness of debt securities. The best results were obtained for investments in bitcoin and ethereum, which have the largest share of cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Sustainability accounting and reporting: an ablative reflexive thematic analysis of climate crisis, conservative or radical reform paradigms

Every year the global financial system sends trillions of dollars to finance environmental destruction, but the climate crisis forces change. Notwithstanding vested interests and the unrecognised paradox of adopting environmental business strategies, the implementation of sustainability accounting and reporting (SAR) is imperative to catalyse economic transition away from fossil-fuel and plastic configurations to more sustainable ones. The research proceeded sequentially. First, it scanned the backdrop to the SAR problem and identified key associated institutions and a corpus of recent literature. An initial review to disentangle its conflicting threads generated three themes of ‘climate crisis’ and ‘conservative’ or more ‘radical’ SAR reform paradigms. Iteratively harnessing this thematic lens, the investigation re-examined the SAR literature corpus. It detected fragmented SAR responses to the climate crisis. Accordingly, the research reformulated its first theme to ‘dystopic climate crisis fragmentation’ but only refined the other two conservative or radical themes to take account of materiality and the split between Anglo-Saxon (IFRS, SSAB) or global and continental institutions (UN, EU, GRI). Conservatives defend incremental standard improvements but retain a single materiality investor-focus. Radicals seek to implement double materiality with a broader spectrum of stakeholders in mind. Both approaches have theoretical as well as pragmatic advantages and disadvantages, so the SAR contention rumbles on. Whilst the standard setting landscape is evolving, division, paradox and contention remain. Given vested interests in the destructive status quo, it would be naïve to expect a harmonious SAR Ithaca to emerge anytime soon. Yet the challenges impel urgent action.

Developments in Financial Technologies for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be seen as the critical goal for every country in the world. In this vein, a stable global financial system is needed these days to satisfy its duty to boost the private capital mobilisation to achieve sustainable development and steady economic growth. Nevertheless, several obstacles limiting such financial mobilisation have been identified by scholars, practitioners, and standard setters. Recently, digital transformation and advancement, specifically in the finance sector, include a wide range of technological developments, and applications such as blockchain, internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence are promised to enhance performance in the financial sector. The potential of digital applications in the finance sector to resolve critical obstacles in financing for inclusive and sustainable growth becomes evident. This chapter aims to provide a summary and a detailed discussion of the latest developments in financial technologies that both facilitate the SDGs and also contribute to future sustainable international business.

Modeling the links between institutional and actual globalization in the countries of the world

The paper is devoted to modeling the links between the institutional and actual level of globalization in the countries of the world. Vector models of error correction, quantile regression, and a stochastic frontier model are considered. As a measure of globalization and its components, the KOF-index of globalization system is used, which allows us to analyze individual globalization processes in the economy, social sphere and politics. According to 2020 data, we determine the dynamic relations between the actual and institutional components of globalization, and the priority of the institutional component for informational and financial globalization is revealed. The example of financial globalization shows the uneven degree of influence of the institutional component on the actual globalization, in particular, its prevailing importance for less globalized countries, indicating the alignment of the degree of internationalization in the global financial system. The degree of effectiveness of the impact of institutional measures, together with the overall level of well-being on the actual financial globalization is analyzed. It is shown that the spread across the countries of the world in the efficiency indicator is almost 70%. Almost 10% of countries have a low efficiency of up to 50%. One third of the countries has average efficiency (50–75%). The share of countries with high efficiency over 75% is about 60%.

Currency Internationalization and Reforms in the Architecture of the Monetary System: the case of Digital Yuan

In the paper, the authors prove that the application of the Chinese currency in the less developed regions reveals that the Chinese Yuan, despite its limited turnover, can replace the national currency. The following positive and negative results on the global financial system are highlighted promoting the internationalization of the digital Yuan: ensuring and unlimited transparency of the government and visibility of internal financial transactions; transparency of all offshore financial transactions within a country as well as of non-resident users; providing a framework for the global financial system and controlling the monetary policies of regional economies that have actively adopted the Yuan. The paper analyses that the strategy of the Yuan internationalization was implemented through the mechanism of the currency swap agreements with central banks of different countries, respectively, the growing international application of the Yuan gradually stimulated the creation of the „Yuan zone". It is proved that the Yuan internationalization has become a part of the state strategy of the Chinese government in transition to a new type of economic growth, so the digital Yuan should eventually replace cash and will become the main innovation in the global financial system since the appearance of digital currency. According to the conducted research, it is shown that the main technology of the state digital currency of China accommodates security technology, transaction technology, and reliable guarantee technology. The system of Digital Currency, Electronic Payment - DCEP includes a digital currency tracking method system and a digital currency management system based on certain conditions. Launch conditions include terms of economic conditions, interest rate terms of the loan, the terms of the subject flow, and time conditions.

Analysis of the Sukuk Market Development in the Countries of The World

Islamic securities sukuk, introduced as a new instrument of the global financial system in the 21st century, have grown rapidly in recent years. Interest in it is growing, as it showed a growth trend even during the global financial and economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The article analyzes the development of sukuk in 2001-2020. Statistics from Malaysia and Turkey are analysed separately.

Corporate Financial Distress: The Impact of Profitability, Liquidity, Asset Productivity, Activity and Solvency

This study aims to determine the importance of liquidity, profitability, asset productivity, activity, and solvency in cases of corporate financial distress. One hundred and five firms in the extractive industry in the United States were analyzed. Firms must be publicly traded and have filed form 10-K reports with the securities and exchange commission of the United States to be considered for the study’s population. The measure of corporate financial distress is the Altman Z-score. By using the Altman discriminant function, this study identifies the precipitants of corporate financial distress. This is especially important because widespread corporate financial distress could cause global financial system volatility. The indicators were measured in the last two years before the distressed firms declared bankruptcy. The results indicate that liquidity, profitability, asset productivity and solvency have an impact on the financial health of firms and therefore, on financial distress. The study further determines that activity ratio does not have a statistically significant relationship with financial distress.

The G20, climate change and COVID-19: critical juncture or critical wound?

PurposeThe Group of 20 (G20) is tasked with responding to economic shocks in the global financial system, with COVID-19 having proved to be the most significant shock since the G20's inception. COVID-19 also represents the first economic crisis accompanied by a concerted attempt to “build back better”, principally through a climate-compatible recovery. In 2021, there is little clarity as to the G20's response to this challenge, primarily due to considerable divergence in the green stimulus practices of its member states. The paper aims to investigate whether the G20, climate change and COVID-19 are critical juncture or critical wound.Design/methodology/approachHistorical institutionalism (HI) suggests that one can explain an institution's future response by reference to its developmental pathway to date. This contribution adopts its concept of “critical junctures” to shed light on the G20's possible institutional response to COVID-19. The contribution undertakes a comparative analysis of the global financial crisis (GFC) and COVID-19 as possible critical junctures for the G20.FindingsIn doing so, the work demonstrates that the G20 “building back better” from COVID-19 requires a shift away from its institutional orthodoxy to a much larger degree than its response to the GFC. Accordingly, whilst both the GFC and COVID-19 may be considered critical junctures for the G20, only COVID-19 has the potential to be a “critical wound” that leads to institutional redundancy.Research limitations/implicationsThrough interrogating this further, this exposition prospectively outlines two possible futures the G20 faces as a consequence of COVID-19: reform or redundancy. In this way, it offers an ex ante perspective on policy-reform options for the G20's ongoing response to COVID-19.Practical implicationsWhichever choice the G20 makes in its response to COVID-19 has profound consequences for global governance in an increasingly unpredictable world.Originality/valueHerein lies the importance of an exploratory assessment of COVID-19 as a critical juncture or a critical wound for the G20.

Financialisation reinforced: the dual legacy of the covid pandemic

This paper examines the impact of the covid pandemic on the financialisation process, here viewed as the growing domination of the world’s bond and equity markets over the world’s product markets. Two major arguments are advanced. The first is that the pandemic has reinforced the functionality of financial market scale, which is that its continuing growth signifies nothing other than that government and corporate organisations are colonising the future to cope with the rising financial pressures of the present. The second argument is that the pandemic has also accentuated one of the more notable dysfunctional aspects of the continuing growth of financial market scale, which is its enforcement of a core-periphery divide between the advanced and emerging market economies that occupy the global financial system. The paper concludes with some policy implications of the analysis that includes the call for a global wealth tax.