In the aftermath of the systemic financial crises of 2007-9, several scholars argued that the problem of systemic financial crises is not well understood. At the same time, the introduction of digital technologies led to new threats and opportunities for the design of the monetary and financial system. For example, thousands of private cryptocurrencies have been implemented and hundreds of research papers on the (possible) introduction of public digital currencies have been published. It is often not explained why these new forms of digital money are needed and which (systemic) problems they (can) solve. In addition, the literature does not provide requirements nor guidelines to shape the development of the monetary and financial system in the digital age. This thesis applies design science to the monetary and financial system as a whole. The application of this novel methodology offers new possibilities to examine this complex system. The contribution of this thesis is threefold. First, different theories on money, banking and systemic financial crises have been researched through an extensive literature review and balance sheets. Second, those theories have been used to develop design requirements and guidelines. Finally, the consensus and pivotal dissensions about the systemic problem(s) of the current monetary and financial system, requirements and guidelines among experts have been identified through semistructured interviews. This research process results in widely supported requirements that demarcate the design space and widely supported guidelines that aim to give direction within the design space, that is, to the future development of the monetary and financial system.
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IT organizations and CEO‟s are, and should be, concerned these days about the (lack of) data confidentiality and the usage of „shadow‟ IT systems by employees. Not only does the company risk monetary loss or public embarrassment, the senior management might also risk personal fines or even imprisonment. Several trends reinforce the attention for these subjects, including the fact that an increasing number of people perform parts of their work tasks from home (RSA, 2007) and the increasing bandwidth available to internet users which makes them rely on the Internet for satisfying their business and personal computing needs (Desisto et al. 2008). Employee compliance with the existing IT security policies is therefore essential. This paper presents a study on factors that influence non-compliance behavior of employees in organizations. The factors found in literature are tested in a survey study amongst employees of a big-four accountancy firm in the Netherlands and Belgium. The study concludes that stricter IT governance and cultural aspects are the most important factors influencing non-compliance behavior.
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The recent bank collapses and bailouts highlight the fragility of the banking system and our bank deposits. The digital euro is an opportunity to reconfigure our monetary system to serve the interests of people and society, by making money safer and more inclusive. However, the European Central Bank’s (ECB) current proposal for a digital euro falls short of this potential. The current plan relies heavily on private financial intermediaries and envisions putting important limitations on the use of digital euros, thereby impacting its capacity to be a universally accessible public good and risking undermining the uptake of the digital euro. By heeding to the bank lobby and baking their interests into the design of the digital euro, the ECB is missing an opportunity to develop an appealing and public digital alternative to private bank deposits. The digital euro must be developed with the aim of benefiting people and society over private interests, and these considerations should guide its design. In the short term, the digital euro should: 1. Be universally accessible. People should be able to access digital euros through a diverse range of intermediaries, which include non-profit and public entities. Implementing a tiered identification system for account-based digital euros, and introducing a value-based option, would ensure the availability of digital euros to the most vulnerable segments of society. 2. Be free of cost for users. Any future legislative framework on the digital euro should include a list of basic services that should be provided for free to users, such as opening and managing an account and the provision of a payment instrument (e.g. a card). 3. Offer a high level of privacy and data protection. Cash, which is fully anonymous, should be used as the baseline when developing the digital euro. A value-based option should be introduced alongside an account-based one, and it should be designed to be fully anonymous. For the account-based option, a ‘privacy threshold’ can ensure that users’ data for small transactions is protected. 4. Have a clear European Central Bank branding. Clear branding will help to differentiate public digital euros from private bank deposits. 5. Bring resilience to the payment system. By providing an offline value-based option, and by ensuring that the digital euro’s legal and technical core infrastructure is public and works independently of any private system, we can offer an alternative to existing payment rails and increase resiliency in case of outages. The digital euro is also an opportunity to improve financial stability by transforming the banking system, and helping central banks to more effectively carry out their monetary policy. The design of the digital euro should be flexible enough to allow for the achievement of these longterm goals, and more research should be conducted to explore how different features could help achieve them. For instance, a digital euro without any holding limit could reduce moral hazard in the banking sector, and the adjustment of interest rates on digital euro deposits and direct monetary transfers could improve the transmission of monetary policy.
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In recent years, the debate about the design of the monetary system has become increasingly prevalent. A major topic within this debate is central bank digital currency or CBDC for short. A survey by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) shows that in 2022, nine in ten central banks (CB) explored a digital variant of their own currency (Kosse & Mattei, 2022). In the euro area, the European Central Bank (ECB) is conducting a wide-range study of the pros and cons of a CBDC, in the form of a digital euro. Other CBs are at different stages of the research cycle. The Chinese central bank is experimenting extensively with its e-CNY and has been conducting research since 2014 (Luo, 2022; Prasad, 2021). The Swedish Riksbank published its first report on the possible designs and effects of the e-krona in September 2017 (Sveriges Riksbank, 2017). Against all these various studies and experiments is the Bahamian Sand dollar, the world's first, by 2020, fully implemented CBDC. The Bahamas is not the only country; in 2022, Jamaica fully introduced the JAM-DEX (CBDC Tracker, 2023). Since CBDCs are a relatively new phenomenon, there is logically little empirical data to support the potential advantages and disadvantages. The fully implemented Sand dollar can confirm or refute some of the claimed theoretical advantages and disadvantages, and lessons can be distilled from this case for the introduction of other CBDCs. This paper first discusses the (theoretical) motivations for implementing the Sand dollar, then discusses its operation and current low adaptation rates. Finally, it derives lessons that can be used in other CBDC cases.
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This article describes a European project which was aimed at improving the situation of persons with psychiatric or learning disabilities with regard to social participation and citizenship. The project took place in three countries (Estonia, Hungary and the Netherlands) and four cities (Tallinn, Budapest, Amersfoort and Maastricht). The project included research and actions at the policy level, the organizational level and the practice level. At the policy level, the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006) and the European Disability Strategy (European Commission, 2010) were used to look at national and local policies, at the reality of the lives of those with disabilities and at the support that professional services offer with regard to participation and inclusion. The project generated a number of insights, recommendations and methods by which to improve the quality of services and increase the number of opportunities for community engagement. In this article, we present some of the lessons learned from the meta-analysis. Although the circumstances in each country are quite different with regard to policy, culture and service systems, it is remarkable that people with disabilities face many of the same problems. The study shows that in all three countries, access to services could be improved. Barriers include bureaucratic procedures and a lack of services. The research identified that in every country and city there are considerable barriers regarding equal participation in the field of housing, work and leisure activities. In addition to financial barriers, there are the barriers of stigma and self-stigmatization. Marginalization keeps people in an unequal position and hinders their recovery and participation. In all countries, professionals need to develop a stronger focus on supporting the participation of their clients in public life and in the development of different roles pertaining to citizenship
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In September, the president of the Dutch central bank wrote what may have been the most remarkable letter of his career: it said that the ECB’s interest rate hikes will lead to losses for De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) for the first time since 1932. Several countries throughout the eurozone are facing a similar problem. To absorb the losses of their central banks, European taxpayers risk having to pay tens or even hundreds of billions of euros a year. Meanwhile private banks get that same amount of money without having to do anything in return. The ECB now stands ready to make a crucial policy decision to determine whether billions in taxpayer money will again flow to the banking sector.
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Often, simplified cultural explanations of a nation‟s economy are common sense and taken for granted. Amidst the debate about the propensity of European countries to compete with other prosperous knowledge economies, some consultants in The Netherlands postulate that the Dutch will never be able to match the requirements of the new economy because of their „polder-model‟, a term used for the Dutch model of gaining consensus in which employers, syndicates and the government meet with each other to make agreements about labour. This postulation was made against the general opinion of some years ago, when this same polder-model was perceived as the main cause of the economic success of the Dutch in the 1990s: “Consensus lies at the heart of the Dutch success where unemployment has been cut to half (2% in 2000) of what it was in 1997. The government, with support of employers and unions, has cut public spending as a share of GDP from 60 to 50%. It is the combination of a quiet and flexible labour market with a solid monetary and fiscal policy and introducing more dynamic markets which is the core of the polder model.”
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While there is extensive research on how Russian interference – in particular Russian disinformation operation – has played out in different European countries, indications of Russian interference directly targeting EU, its institutions or policies received little attention. This paper argues why there is good reason to assume that the EU, its institutions and its policies are an ideal a target for authoritarian regimes to exploit. It then explores in what ways, if any, Russian disinformation campaigning targeted EU institutions and their policies during the political and electoral campaigns leading up to the European Parliament (EP) elections of May 2019. In this context disinformation campaigning in terms of both network flows and contents (‘narratives’) have been examined, on the basis of a review of various reports identifying Russian interference and disinformation and of analyses of overall disinformation flows in Europe and the use of a database monitoring occurrences of disinformation.
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Times change and we change with them. Our world is changing rapidly and radically. Education institutions need to prepare and support students in becoming knowledgeable, concerned and internationally competent world citizens. The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) has made World Citizenship and Internationalization their institutional focal points. The Research Group International Cooperation generates and disseminates knowledge that supports those policies. So this volume gives an overview of some of the work done in the Research Group International Cooperation. More is to be found on our website: www.thehagueuniversity.com/research/overview-research-groups/international-cooperation/ about-the-research-group.
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Vast empirical evidence underscores that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters. As governments accordingly pursue export-promoting policies we are interested in the firmness of these conclusions with respect to African small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the influence of the destination of export trade. Using a micro-panel dataset from five African countries we confirm the self-selection. We apply propensity scores to match exporters and use a difference-in-difference methodology to test if African SMEs experience productivity gains because of export participation. Results indicate that African firms significantly learn-by-exporting. Manufacturers obtain significant performance improvements due to internationalization although this effect is moderated by export destination. Firms that export outside Africa become more capital intensive and at the same time hire more workers. In contrast we find evidence that exporters within the African region significantly downsize in capital intensity. Results regarding skill-bias of internationally active firms are mixed, where exporters within the region expand in size and hire more relatively unskilled workers.
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