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.

GENESIS OF THE GENDER SENSITIVE INVESTMENT IN THE GLOBAL CAPITAL FLOW

The concept of global investments has been characterized through diverse approaches in different classical and neoclassical schools of thought. As of today, the most common concepts in understanding global capital flow altogether and global investments as its part needs an urgent update. Due to a major shift in the communication patterns, the generation gap between the now retiring Baby boomers and Gen X and the newcomers Gen Y and Gen Z and their values being the main driver of change, as well as the most rapid digital transformation the world has ever seen, the theoretical groundwork to understanding the global capital flow and investments needs to be revised. This article aims to analyse the fundamental theoretical work on genesis of the term investment in the global capital flow. The author guides through the brief history of the evolution of investment and gives an overview of the most prominent concepts of the movement and regulation of foreign direct investments throughout the Ukrainian and global economic thought. The article considers different approaches and methods that have been applied to understand investments in its traditional meaning, as well as the reasons to existing of several approaches. The main five hypothesis are mentioned, which are believed to classify the motion and regulation of the global capital flow. The main components and functions of the global capital market are summarized and such categories as the depth of the capital market are explained. The article points to the problem of the asym-metry and biases inside the capital market. The author explains reasons for development of novice ideas in the economic thought due to an urgent need of redesigning economic processes based on the self­identification of an individual and their internal motives for economic decision­making. The current trend of implementing social responsibilities throughout the investment process is also mentioned in the publication. The article gives a prognosis of the future transformations and adaptations of the global capital flow due to the change in generations to the merit of digitalization and inclusiveness, as well as gender balance.Keywords: global investments, gender sensitive investment, global capital flow, concepts, digital transformation, inclusion, self­identification. Статтю присвячено дослідженню теоретичних основ формування поняття інвестицій у міжнародному русі капіталу. Досліджено течії, у рамках яких сформовано найбільш відомі концепції руху та регулювання прямих іноземних інвестицій як у межах вітчизняної, так і світової економічної думки. Проведено аналізування підходів та методів різних теоретичних шкіл до тлумачення інвестицій у традиційному поданні. Наведено причини виокремлення нових та новітніх течій економічної думки, які покликані переосмислити економічні процеси, спираючись на процеси самоідентифікації людини та її внутрішні мотиви до прийняття економічних рішень. Розглянуто найбільш поширені поточні нові критерії оцінки інвестиційного процесу. Запропоновано прогноз трансформації та адаптації міжнародного ринку капіталу за рахунок зміни поколінь на користь цифровізації та інклюзивності, ґендерного балансу. Ключові слова: міжнародні інвестиції, ґендерно чутливе інвестування, міжнародних рух капіталу, концепції, цифрова трансформація, інклюзивність, самоідентифікація.

Critical political economy of the public infrastructure crisis in Lebanon

In this interview, Karim Eid-Sabbagh and Ulrich Ufer discuss how the case of the public infrastructure crisis in Lebanon highlights the importance of including analytical dimensions of critical political economy and global financial dynamics in technology assessment alongside a technology-society-governance perspective – in particular when focusing on the Global South. The Lebanese crisis has built up through long-term structural problems that include the legacies of colonialism, the country’s peripheral position in global capital relations, elite nepotism, sectarian strife, and the state’s dependency on international donor funding to build and maintain public infrastructure. These have coincided with short-term disintegration and disaster events over the past two years: mass migration, countrywide anti-government protests in fall 2019, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, the destruction of large parts of the country’s capital by the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in August 2020, and the spiraling devaluation of the Lebanese currency.

Empirical Study on the Effect of Adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the Quality of Earnings using Beneish Model in a Sample of Banks Listed in the Iraqi Stock Exchange

The need for international financial reporting standards (IFRS) emerged due to the increasing degree of interdependence between global capital markets and the need for investors to obtain reliable and honest financial information in expressing economic events, in order to find a common financial language, and this is what IFRS provide. Nevertheless, the research aimed to measure the impact of the adoption of IFRS on the quality of earnings in the Iraqi banks listed in the Iraqi Stock Exchange for a sample of 30 banks. The Beneish model was used to measure the quality of earnings, while Mann-Whitney was used to measure and prove the hypothesis of the research. However, the research reached a set of conclusions, including that although the IFRS should contribute to improving the quality of financial reporting, the adoption of these standards in commercial banks listed in the Iraq Stock Exchange did not contribute to achieving quality in earnings even after adopting those standards. Furthermore, a Beneish model is an important tool for auditors, financial analysts, investors, and creditors who have the ability to understand the financial statements or those who have a reasonable understanding of the nature of those financial statements in measuring the quality of earnings, because it is a simple and easy to implement tool.

After a Global Platform Leaves: Understanding the Heterogeneity of Gig Workers through Capital Mobility

We know a great deal about global capital mobility in traditional industries, such as manufacturing, but very little about emerging capital mobility in the gig economy. Using the case of Canadian Foodora, a multinational platform that left Canada in 2020, I situate global capital mobility in the local labour market. Drawing upon interview data with former Foodora couriers and ethnographic data collected from a gig workers’ union, I investigate the social, economic and political subjectivities of gig workers activated by a global platform’s capital mobility. My findings reveal unexpected parallel effects caused by capital mobility in the gig economy and traditional industries. My research highlights how heterogeneity is salient for understanding divergent worker subjectivities. The economic and social impacts upon financially dependent gig workers and the emotional connections of devoted and organized gig workers challenge the dominant discourse that gig workers are simply part-timers and hence free from work commitments.

Extractivism and Labour Control: Reflections of Turkey’s ‘Coal Rush’ in Local Labour Regimes

This study analyses labour processes and local labour control strategies in the extractive industries and regions as the reflections of state-capital-labour-nature relations. I argue that, for the analysis of labour control in extractive industries, there is a need to pay attention to (i) the significance of the natural resource for global capital accumulation processes and for the development policies of the state; (ii) the formation of the local labour market through proletarianization of rural population and other means of labour supply; (iii) the organization of work considering both natural limits (such as geological structure of the basin) and workforce composition; and (iv) the use of local political, institutional and community dynamics. Drawing upon the fieldwork carried out in Soma Coal Basin, this paper shows how Turkey’s coal rush shapes local labour control strategies.