Detection of Financial Inclusion Vulnerable Rural Areas through an Access to Cash Index: Solutions Based on the Pharmacy Network and a CBDC. Evidence Based on Ávila (Spain)

The rise in popularity of central bank digital currencies. A systematic review

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have been growing in popularity since 2018, as worldwide countries explore their impact and implementation options. This article analyzes the state of research around central bank digital currencies and the evolving landscape of CBDCs, and explores emerging areas of research and trends by using the PRISMA method and VOSviewer, with the goal of showing the main opportunities and challenges related to them. AMSTAR, DistillerSR, Eppi-Reviewer, ROBIS, and SRDR were the screening and quality evaluation tools employed for study eligibility criteria, design screening and content selection, text analysis data extraction, methodological quality predictors, and reliable and reproducible evidence assessment. A total of 1024 articles on central bank digital currencies were identified in Scopus and the Web of Science, out of which 747 have been included in the review (documents which were not in English language and not categorized as journal articles were excluded). Through an analysis of the relevant literature, the study categorizes CBDC research into positive, negative and neutral research, with a particular focus on sustainability issues, and conducts a keyword co-occurrence analysis using VOSviewer, following a narrowing down of the relevant articles to be included in the study by applying the PRISMA framework. This generates an overall view for experts and researchers who can use the main analyzed features of CBDCs and adapt them accordingly, taking into account relevant macroeconomic characteristics. The study highlights the need to continue interdisciplinary research, by adapting the research and CBDC characteristics to keep up with the latest technologies and with the shift towards green finance, and explores the elaborate relationship between finance, technology and sustainability.

Financial Exclusion in Rural and Urban Contexts in Poland: A Threat to Achieving SDG Eight?

Financial inclusion, which consists of having a financial system that is easily accessible to citizens, is identified by various international organizations such as the new UN Agenda 2030, as a priority objective. This objective is particularly relevant in rural areas, where access to these services is more difficult, as citizens have to travel several kilometers to access them. In this study, we analyze the current situation of the Polish financial sector in terms of its accessibility, in order to measure the degree of financial inclusion. For this purpose, we use three combined methodologies. Initially, a data extraction from the Central Bank of Poland was carried out. Subsequently, three methodologies are applied to calculate financial inclusion. First, we apply the criteria of the Financial Access Survey (FAS) of the International Monetary Fund. Secondly, the Access to Cash Index (ACI) methodology by calculating a score that describes the access to banking services according to certain items. Finally, we applied the nearest neighbor methodology to detect in each voivodship those points where it is most difficult (measured in km distance) to access banking services. Some areas, especially in rural areas of the different voivodeships, present certain problems when it comes to accessing banking services. Therefore, the fulfillment of SDG 8.10 will be more difficult to achieve in these areas. The public authorities must pay attention to this, in order to reach the commitments acquired with the 2030 agenda, in terms of financial inclusion.

Solutions to Financial Exclusion in Rural and Depopulated Areas: Evidence Based in Castilla y León (Spain)

Access to banking and financial services is defined by various international organizations as essential to ensure the development of countries and regions. However, this access is not always guaranteed, even in developed countries. Our study focuses on analyzing the current situation of several rural and depopulated areas of Castilla y León (Spain) in terms of access to banking services and cash. For this purpose, an initial spatial analysis has been carried out to compute the access to these services measured in kilometers needed to travel to access them. Subsequently, we included, as a possible solution, the access to these financial services through their implementation (as a cash back point) in the extensive Spanish network of pharmacies. The results obtained in the spatial analysis show that the introduction of the network of pharmacies as a point of access to cash means a significant reduction in the distance to travel in municipalities in rural and unpopulated areas in order to access cash. In the case of the province of Avila the distance would be reduced by 55%, in the province of Segovia the distance would be reduced by 38.5%, in the province of Soria the distance would be reduced by 20%, in the province of Palencia the distance would be reduced by 22%; and finally in the province of Zamora the distance would be reduced by 33%.

Cryptocurrency as Epidemiologically Safe Means of Transactions: Diminishing Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Spread

In comparison with other respiratory viruses, the current COVID-19 pandemic’s rapid seizing the world can be attributed to indirect (contact) way of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus in addition to the regular airborne way. A significant part of indirect transmission is made through cash bank notes. SARS-CoV-2 remains on cash paper money for period around four times larger than influenza A virus and is absorbed by cash notes two and a half times more effectively than influenza A (our model). During the pandemic, cryptocurrencies have gained attractiveness as an “epidemiologically safe” means of transactions. On the basis of the authors’ gallop polls performed online with social networks users in 44 countries in 2020–2021 (the total number of clear responses after the set repair 32,115), around 14.7% of surveyed participants engaged in cryptocurrency-based transactions during the pandemic. This may be one of the reasons of significant rise of cryptocurrencies rates since mid-March 2020 till the end of 2021. The paper discusses the reasons for cryptocurrency attractiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them, there are fear of SARS-CoV-2 spread via cash contacts and the ability of the general population to mine cryptocurrencies. The article also provides a breakdown of the polled audience profile to determine the nationalities that have maximal level of trust to saving and transacting money as cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency Mining from an Economic and Environmental Perspective. Analysis of the Most and Least Sustainable Countries

There are different studies that point out that the price of electricity is a fundamental factor that will influence the mining decision, due to the cost it represents. There is also an ongoing debate about the pollution generated by cryptocurrency mining, and whether or not the use of renewable energies will solve the problem of its sustainability. In our study, starting from the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), we have considered several determinants of cryptocurrency mining: energy price, how that energy is generated, temperature, legal constraints, human capital, and R&D&I. From this, via linear regression, we recalculated this EPI by including the above factors that affect cryptocurrency mining in a sustainable way. The study determines, once the EPI has been readjusted, that the most sustainable countries to perform cryptocurrency mining are Denmark and Germany. In fact, of the top ten countries eight of them are European (Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Austria, and the United Kingdom); and the remaining two are Asian (South Korea and Japan).

From Bitcoin to Central Bank Digital Currencies: Making Sense of the Digital Money Revolution

We analyze the path from cryptocurrencies to official Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), to shed some light on the ultimate dematerialization of money. To that end, we made an extensive search that resulted in a review of more than 100 academic and grey literature references, including official positions from central banks. We present and discuss the characteristics of the different CBDC variants being considered—namely, wholesale, retail, and, for the latter, the account-based, and token-based—as well as ongoing pilots, scenarios of interoperability, and open issues. Our contribution enables decision-makers and society at large to understand the potential advantages and risks of introducing CBDCs, and how these vary according to many technical and economic design choices. The practical implication is that a debate becomes possible about the trade-offs that the stakeholders are willing to accept.

Central Banks’ Monetary Policy in the Face of the COVID-19 Economic Crisis: Monetary Stimulus and the Emergence of CBDCs

This article analyzes the monetary policy of major central banks during the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising public debt in many countries is being financed through asset purchases by monetary authorities. Although these stimulus policies predate the pandemic, they have been significantly boosted as many governments face large financing needs. We have been in a low interest rate environment for years and some governments have issued debt securities at negative rates. In addition, the rise of decentralized cryptocurrencies, based on blockchain technology, has created greater competition in the international monetary system and many governments have considered the creation of centralized virtual currencies, known as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). We will analyze some relevant cases, with an emphasis on the digital euro project. The methodology is based on the analysis of the evolution of monetary variables. Pearson’s correlation will be used to establish some relationships between them. There is a strong similarity in the expansionary monetary policies of central banks. Although the growth of the money supply has not been passed on to the CPI, it has been passed on to the financial markets and the price of assets such as Bitcoin or gold.

Applied Machine Learning in Social Sciences: Neural Networks and Crime Prediction

This study proposes a crime prediction model according to communes (areas or districts in which the city of Buenos Aires is divided). For this, the Python programming language is used, due to its versatility and wide availability of libraries oriented to Machine Learning. The crimes reported (period 2016–2019) that occurred in the city of Buenos Aires selected to test the model are: homicides, theft, injuries, and robberies. With this, it is possible to generate a crime prediction model according to the city area based on the SEMMA (Sample, Explore, Modify, Model, and Assess) model and after data manipulation, standardization and cleaning; clustering is performed using K-means and subsequently the neural network is generated. For prediction, it is necessary to provide the model with the information corresponding to the predictive characteristics (predict); these characteristics being according to the developed neural network model: year, month, day, time zone, commune, and type of crime.