The dissertation aims at performing an analysis of latest trends concerning Central Bank Digital ... more The dissertation aims at performing an analysis of latest trends concerning Central Bank Digital Currencies. To put this in concrete terms, it is questioned whether the public would welcome such an initiative and which risks it would entail. To date, privately issued cryptocurrencies feature high volatility and uncertainty on future developments due to the low scalability. Furthermore, privacy and anonymity features favour illegal usages of such currencies. The paper will also analyse the possible implications of a new sovereign digital currency, which is available to the public, on the current monetary policy instruments, with reference to the latest paper currency’s demand trends in developed countries. Moreover, as far as such new CBDC can be interest bearing, perhaps could address the zero lower bound issue. From a banking policy perspective, it is understood that in case of a banking crisis a bank run would be somewhat more probable. The paper will also focus on the role of trust in environments characterized by information asymmetries such as the financial market. However, it is worth recalling that the lending role of commercial banks should be taken into proper consideration, assuming central banks would not want to involve in such area, especially in the scenario whereby central banks would directly compete with private banks collecting deposits from private agents.
Which biases can compromise performance measurement systems' efficiency? In the digital era of pu... more Which biases can compromise performance measurement systems' efficiency? In the digital era of public governance, when the capillary diffusion fake news threatens to have an impact on elections, citizens urge for transparency and reliable fact-checking systems. One of the pillars of New Public Management was indeed represented by performance appraisal, first introduced in 1978 in the United States as part of the Civil Service Reform Act. Richard Thaler, recently awarded with the Nobel Prize for his works on behavioural economics, in one of his latest books Misbehaving (Thaler, 2015) writes about a non-rational phenomenon regarding performance appraisal that he had personally experienced. At the time, writes Thaler, he managed to get most of the students mad at him while teaching Microeconomics because of the scores of a midterm exam. In spite of all the complaints he received as a professor, he didn't want to make the exam any easier and he managed to increase students' satisfaction through the shift in the maximum score from 100 to 137 1. Why performance appraisal? As a matter of fact, performance appraisal is able to provide objective and quantitative indicators of the performance of a certain employee, division inside a firm or even a city. For example, the city of Boston is publicly sharing many of the most relevant performance indicators of the efficiency of the city allowing citizens to directly assess the public management 2. It is believed by many scholars that the stronger accountability (entailed by the performance measurement system) would lead to an overall better performance. This is due to the fact that performance appraisal tends to have an impact behaviour and decisions of individuals. There are three main consequences of the implementation of such systems: (i) performance assessment improves management and informs decision making, (ii) there is a shift in emphasis on what is being measured and (iii) managers can improve allocation of resources and financial management. It is worth noting that performance appraisal is not always safe and sound: depending on the dimension of the organization and its complexity, managers might encounter different issues. First, performance measurement works the best when there is a clear definition of the organization goals and objectives, which is not always the case especially when dealing with public institutions or countries whose aim and its key performance dimensions might not be easily recognizable. Second, the selection of the performance indicators (KPI) may introduce some further difficulties given the multidimensionality, subjectivity and uncertainty in the causality effect between the indicator and the performance. 1 The main complaint was that the average score was 72 out of 100 which was perfectly in line with Prof. Thaler's aim. In the following midterm exam he then came up with the idea of increasing the maximum score to 137 from 100. The exam became slightly harder and this time the average score was 70% but students were much happier of their average score which was 96. This was due to different factors: first, it was harder to divide the score by 137 and second because a score of 90 or even 100 sounded much better. 2 Data are publicly available at: https://www.boston.gov/cityscore.
The dissertation aims at performing an analysis of latest trends concerning Central Bank Digital ... more The dissertation aims at performing an analysis of latest trends concerning Central Bank Digital Currencies. To put this in concrete terms, it is questioned whether the public would welcome such an initiative and which risks it would entail. To date, privately issued cryptocurrencies feature high volatility and uncertainty on future developments due to the low scalability. Furthermore, privacy and anonymity features favour illegal usages of such currencies. The paper will also analyse the possible implications of a new sovereign digital currency, which is available to the public, on the current monetary policy instruments, with reference to the latest paper currency’s demand trends in developed countries. Moreover, as far as such new CBDC can be interest bearing, perhaps could address the zero lower bound issue. From a banking policy perspective, it is understood that in case of a banking crisis a bank run would be somewhat more probable. The paper will also focus on the role of trust in environments characterized by information asymmetries such as the financial market. However, it is worth recalling that the lending role of commercial banks should be taken into proper consideration, assuming central banks would not want to involve in such area, especially in the scenario whereby central banks would directly compete with private banks collecting deposits from private agents.
The dissertation aims at performing an analysis of latest trends concerning Central Bank Digital ... more The dissertation aims at performing an analysis of latest trends concerning Central Bank Digital Currencies. To put this in concrete terms, it is questioned whether the public would welcome such an initiative and which risks it would entail. To date, privately issued cryptocurrencies feature high volatility and uncertainty on future developments due to the low scalability. Furthermore, privacy and anonymity features favour illegal usages of such currencies. The paper will also analyse the possible implications of a new sovereign digital currency, which is available to the public, on the current monetary policy instruments, with reference to the latest paper currency’s demand trends in developed countries. Moreover, as far as such new CBDC can be interest bearing, perhaps could address the zero lower bound issue. From a banking policy perspective, it is understood that in case of a banking crisis a bank run would be somewhat more probable. The paper will also focus on the role of trust in environments characterized by information asymmetries such as the financial market. However, it is worth recalling that the lending role of commercial banks should be taken into proper consideration, assuming central banks would not want to involve in such area, especially in the scenario whereby central banks would directly compete with private banks collecting deposits from private agents.
Which biases can compromise performance measurement systems' efficiency? In the digital era of pu... more Which biases can compromise performance measurement systems' efficiency? In the digital era of public governance, when the capillary diffusion fake news threatens to have an impact on elections, citizens urge for transparency and reliable fact-checking systems. One of the pillars of New Public Management was indeed represented by performance appraisal, first introduced in 1978 in the United States as part of the Civil Service Reform Act. Richard Thaler, recently awarded with the Nobel Prize for his works on behavioural economics, in one of his latest books Misbehaving (Thaler, 2015) writes about a non-rational phenomenon regarding performance appraisal that he had personally experienced. At the time, writes Thaler, he managed to get most of the students mad at him while teaching Microeconomics because of the scores of a midterm exam. In spite of all the complaints he received as a professor, he didn't want to make the exam any easier and he managed to increase students' satisfaction through the shift in the maximum score from 100 to 137 1. Why performance appraisal? As a matter of fact, performance appraisal is able to provide objective and quantitative indicators of the performance of a certain employee, division inside a firm or even a city. For example, the city of Boston is publicly sharing many of the most relevant performance indicators of the efficiency of the city allowing citizens to directly assess the public management 2. It is believed by many scholars that the stronger accountability (entailed by the performance measurement system) would lead to an overall better performance. This is due to the fact that performance appraisal tends to have an impact behaviour and decisions of individuals. There are three main consequences of the implementation of such systems: (i) performance assessment improves management and informs decision making, (ii) there is a shift in emphasis on what is being measured and (iii) managers can improve allocation of resources and financial management. It is worth noting that performance appraisal is not always safe and sound: depending on the dimension of the organization and its complexity, managers might encounter different issues. First, performance measurement works the best when there is a clear definition of the organization goals and objectives, which is not always the case especially when dealing with public institutions or countries whose aim and its key performance dimensions might not be easily recognizable. Second, the selection of the performance indicators (KPI) may introduce some further difficulties given the multidimensionality, subjectivity and uncertainty in the causality effect between the indicator and the performance. 1 The main complaint was that the average score was 72 out of 100 which was perfectly in line with Prof. Thaler's aim. In the following midterm exam he then came up with the idea of increasing the maximum score to 137 from 100. The exam became slightly harder and this time the average score was 70% but students were much happier of their average score which was 96. This was due to different factors: first, it was harder to divide the score by 137 and second because a score of 90 or even 100 sounded much better. 2 Data are publicly available at: https://www.boston.gov/cityscore.
The dissertation aims at performing an analysis of latest trends concerning Central Bank Digital ... more The dissertation aims at performing an analysis of latest trends concerning Central Bank Digital Currencies. To put this in concrete terms, it is questioned whether the public would welcome such an initiative and which risks it would entail. To date, privately issued cryptocurrencies feature high volatility and uncertainty on future developments due to the low scalability. Furthermore, privacy and anonymity features favour illegal usages of such currencies. The paper will also analyse the possible implications of a new sovereign digital currency, which is available to the public, on the current monetary policy instruments, with reference to the latest paper currency’s demand trends in developed countries. Moreover, as far as such new CBDC can be interest bearing, perhaps could address the zero lower bound issue. From a banking policy perspective, it is understood that in case of a banking crisis a bank run would be somewhat more probable. The paper will also focus on the role of trust in environments characterized by information asymmetries such as the financial market. However, it is worth recalling that the lending role of commercial banks should be taken into proper consideration, assuming central banks would not want to involve in such area, especially in the scenario whereby central banks would directly compete with private banks collecting deposits from private agents.
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