The myth of the cashless economy

Analyzing the challenges related to achieving a cashless economy in countries with high levels of socio-economic inequalit

Digital Payments, the Cashless Economy, and Financial Inclusion in the United Arab Emirates

Since the oil price downturn of 2015, the United Arab Emirates and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council countries have worked hard to expand digital payments in the interest of improved tax and revenue collection, transparency, and security. Yet despite a deep transformation and diversification of their payment eco-systems and the formalization of plans to become “cashless economies” modelled on South Korea and Sweden, cash continues to dominate payments in both countries. This paper finds that plans to expand digital payments at the expense of cash may not be well-adapted to countries with high levels of socio-economic inequality. It proposes a link between socio-economic inequality and use of cash in emerging economies, and concludes that it may be better to not view the relationship between cash and digital payments in binary zero-sum terms, until there is a better understanding of the socio-economic, technological, and policy context in which countries like South Korea and Sweden have managed to reduce their reliance on cash in favor of a diversified digital payments eco-system

Big money reigns, small money gains - but who will fix the International Monetary System?

The evolution of the international monetary system towards a more multipolar configuration is not only reflective of fundamentals but of increasing fragilities and uncertainty. In this paper, we map the trajectories of the Big Four (EUR, GBP, JPY, USD) and secondary currencies (AUD, CAD,CHF, CNY) in the past decade and argue that the system is increasingly ill-adapted to the reconfiguration of the global economy, bringing to the forefront the need for a reliable alternative international reserve asset

Big money reigns, small money gains - but who will fix the International Monetary System?

The evolution of the international monetary system towards a more multipolar configuration is not only reflective of fundamentals but of increasing fragilities and uncertainty. In this paper, we map the trajectories of the Big Four (EUR, GBP, JPY, USD) and secondary currencies (AUD, CAD,CHF, CNY) in the past decade and argue that the system is increasingly ill-adapted to the reconfiguration of the global economy, bringing to the forefront the need for a reliable alternative international reserve asset

The international monetary system: Toward a more multipolar configuration?

The international monetary system is evolving toward a more multipolar configuration, with the transition being driven as much by fundamentals as by increasing uncertainty at the heart of the system. In this chapter we assess the trajectories of the “big four” (EUR, GBP, JPY, USD) and secondary currencies (AUD, CAD, CHF, CNY) in the past decade and find that the system is increasingly ill-adapted to the reconfiguration of the global economy, bringing to the forefront the need for a reliable alternative international reserve asset that can supplement traditional reserves in euro, pound, yen and US dollar