In this paper, we develop a model in which a monopolistic firm manufactures and sells a digital product, by incorporating digital rights management (DRM), quality degradation of pirated products, and government copyright enforcement into the consumer’s utility function. We determine the monopolist’s optimal pricing strategies and the appropriate DRM protection level through mathematical deduction. Our results show that when the government copyright enforcement is moderate and the quality of pirated products is relatively high, implementing a DRM system is optimal for the monopolist. However, in most other cases, DRM-free is better for the monopolist. This result may explain why DRM is not very popular in some industries. Our results suggest that choosing the right price, focusing on content innovation, and weakening DRM protection may be a better strategy for firms now. The results also indicate that DRM-free may be more prominent in the digital music industry than in the software and video games industries.

This study explores the cause and effect of endogenous risk aversion in land pricing, where state intervention through taxation remains a general practice. Using a consumption-based asset pricing model incorporating taxation, it is shown that high taxation, due to the indexation effect, supporting land prices and reducing individuals' risk expectations, could lead to an endogenous decrease in risk aversion, which could result in market dysfunction because risk aversion plays a key role in the market mechanism. China, with its wholly state-owned land and the general use of land sales to cover financial deficits, is a typical case for empirical tests. The tests confirm that there, the rise in land prices was driven by the increase in reserve prices set by local governments, a strong means of taxation, and not by the market, indicating the endogenous decrease in risk aversion.

Excessive volatility in financial markets can disrupt economic activity, affect investor and consumer confidence, and potentially lead to financial crises in an economy. Due to this backdrop, this study examined the link between asset class volatility and the output gap in Nigeria. The asset classes were categorized into stock, crude, gold, and bitcoin. The study adopted the GARCH and Bayesian VAR approach and found that all share index has an initial negative impulse with output gap while other asset classes have a positive impulse on output gap. The outcome of this study revealed to both policymakers and economists the potential risks and vulnerabilities of asset class volatility in the economy. Based on this result, recommendations are made amongst which is the strengthening of the Nigerian stock market to help with the inflationary pressures this is because the Nigerian stock market hurt the output gap also, the government should prioritize investing in crude, gold, and bitcoin to push the actual output to full capacity, which brings about employment.

A differences-in-differences (DID) model and financial data from Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2019 are used to empirically investigate the effects of the digital economy on corporate financial asset holdings using the "Broadband China" policy as a quasi-natural experiment. After robustness testing and heterogeneity effects are disposed of, the digital economy dramatically boosts corporate financial asset holdings. According to the channel analysis, the digital economy can reduce corporate financing constraints and boost corporate financial asset holdings, notably based on speculative demand. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the digital economy has a greater impact on corporate financial asset holdings for firms with higher market competition, small-scale firms with a short-listed age, and firms in the western region. This paper provides policy guidance for enterprises returning to the real economy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and elucidate the effect of the announcement of winning a US federal contract by pharmaceutical companies, traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange on the share prices. The analysis is based on a sample of 327 event days from 12 pharmaceutical companies listed on the NASDAQ market for a given period (2010 – 2021). The sample is analysed by using the event study methodology and Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in order to examine the abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns during an event window of 10 days before the event and 10 days after the event. While prior researchers have identified significant positive abnormal returns following different types of contract announcements, this study aims to contribute to the existing literature by exploring the specific impact of the public contract in the pharmaceutical market on market shares. By investigating this unique aspect, the research fills a gap in previous studies and enhances our understanding of the relationship between public contract announcements and market performance. The data collection utilises secondary data from the official open data source of US federal spending information and daily stock prices. The collected data is analysed quantitatively using event study methodology, allowing for statistical examination of abnormal returns, such as ANOVA analysis, t-statistic, beta index, time series analysis and linear regression. The research findings indicate a significant impact of public contract-winning announcements on cumulative abnormal returns, suggesting a positive reaction from the market. However, average abnormal returns within the event window were positive but not statistically significant. These results imply that winning a government contract has a limited impact on the stock market. The implications of this research highlight the importance of public contract announcements in the pharmaceutical industry and their influence on share prices. The findings provide valuable insights for investors and stakeholders, aiding decision-making processes related to investment opportunities and market performance.

The Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule aims at reducing the cost of healthcare in the United States by making information about the prices of medical services more readily available to market participants. The economic rationale is that higher price transparency should reduce the level and the dispersion of prices by disincentivizing hospitals from charging higher prices than possible. Using data on 3789 prices for three diagnostic imaging procedures and on the compliance with the rule for 86 acute care hospitals in the Greater Los Angeles area, we test the hypothesis that price levels and price dispersion are lower among hospitals that are more compliant. We do not reject this hypothesis, although we do not observe strictly decreasing relationships in all analyses. Prices are lower at hospitals with high or medium compliance than at hospitals with low compliance, but there is not a clear difference between hospitals with high and hospitals with medium compliance. Prices are less dispersed among hospitals with high compliance than among hospitals with low compliance, but the evidence for hospitals with medium compliance is less clear. We conclude that high compliance with the Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule implies lower prices and less price dispersion among hospitals.

Electricity price volatility in developing economies, particularly Nigeria, presents a significant challenge to sustainable development. In this paper, we examine the macroeconomic drivers of electricity prices (ELP) in Nigeria based on annual data spanning 1980-2022 and the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) procedure. Our model estimates the long-run and short-run impacts of population growth (PG), economic growth (GDP), crude oil price (COPR), and electricity consumption (ELC) on electricity prices (ELP). The empirical findings reveal a positive and long-run effect of PG on ELP, indicating that rising demand from a growing population increases electricity prices. In the short-run, ELC surprisingly co-moved with ELP, which may be attributable to price-sensitive demand within specific consumer segments or periods. Furthermore, GDP and COPR exert positive effects on ELP, indicating that economic growth drives energy consumption and prices, and the cost-driven impact of fossil fuel dependence in electricity generation. These findings shed light on the complex interplay of demographic, economic, and energy market-related forces driving electricity prices in Nigeria. Therefore, the paper proposes some policy suggestions based on the empirical findings.

Liquidity and its associated issues are one of dominant strands in the market microstructure. In this study, microblogging-based behavioral perspective on economic unrest is linked to the market liquidity. The concept of liquidity is examined in terms of price dispersion relative to the quantity traded. The analysis contains the quantification of multiple linear regression, Gaussian distribution technique, and vector error correction methodology. In the economic stability period, the investor’s mood, either in positive manner or pessimistic context, had an influential role on the price impact volume-based liquidity. Meantime, the probability was higher for occurrence of price impact volume-based liquidity in response to the sentiment indicators. In the economic unrest environments, the positive bias investor’s mood was not vigorous enough to influence the dispersion of asset’s prices and trading quantity. Most importantly, the negative bias investor’s emotion was linked to increase the dispersion of asset’s prices relative to the quantity traded. Investors with a lower amount of trading quantity had declined the liquidity in the market. Additionally, there was a higher probability for occurrence of illiquidity in the pessimistic market periods. However, changes in past sentiment series were not associated with changes in pervious liquidity series, either in short run or long run. The findings may be potentially applicable to manage the behavioral perspective of liquidity risk.

As prices have grown at their fastest pace in recent times, inflation has become a key concern for the macro-policy environment. In many jurisdictions, consumer prices have typically formed the basis for price stability policies. Notwithstanding, producer prices remain an important channel and must be closely watched. We utilise data on Ghana and investigate the causal links between consumer and producer inflation and assess the necessity to include producer inflation target in the monetary policy rule. Our VECM and Granger causality analyses show that consumer and producer prices exhibit very stable long-term relationship and short-term gaps between the two tend to normalise over time. The relationship between consumer and producer prices has not been a one-sided lag structure, even though producer prices lead more than lag consumer prices. We conclude that Bank of Ghana’s monetary policy design that does not distinguish between consumer and producer inflation is less problematic at the moment.

The high price of energy due to green energy policy will cause adjustments across the US economy predicted in the present general equilibrium model that includes energy Btu input with capital and labor to produce manufactures and services. This same model in trade theory examines the effects of a tariff on an imported factor of production such as a natural resource or capital.  Corresponding error correction estimates of the reduced form equations of the model in annual 1970-2018 data prove robust and suggest model modifications. A parametric approach to noncompetitive pricing based on unit cost diminishing with output brings the model much closer to the estimates. Manufactures are revealed to have a higher degree of noncompetitive pricing than services. Assuming constant elasticity of substitution production, a weak degree is revealed to provide the best fit to the error correction estimates. The high price of green energy will cause an inelastic decrease in energy input resulting in increased energy revenue. Outputs of both sectors fall, more in manufactures due to its energy intensity. The capital return and wage also fall given the weak substitution of capital and labor relative to the price of energy. The wage rises slightly in the model but falls considerably in the error correction estimate. The only clear winner is energy input with increased revenue. The government owns a large share of hydrocarbon reserves and will benefit from a higher price of energy.

Cryptocurrencies have gained popularity over the past five to six years. Most recently, events like the FTX bankruptcy fueled the interest in regulation. Moreover, it is possible that the FTX event disrupting the cryptocurrency market was a factor in Silicon Valley Bank's failure. While several countries consider regulation, from soft regulation, like Japan, to more rigid standards, like the total ban in China, we study the effect of other news or events on cryptocurrency prices. This paper looks at historical closing prices for Bitcoin, the largest of the cryptocurrencies, and how prices react to various events. Then we focus on modeling the time series considering an 'event,' China's ban on cryptocurrency exchanges, using intervention analysis. We find that intervention analysis provides a reliable approach to quantifying the impact regulation may have on cryptocurrency pricing.

Previous literature shows that the price-discovery ability of options market varies substantially over time. Using data of Shanghai Stock Exchange 50 exchange-traded fund options, this paper shows that options prices contribute relatively less to price discovery during low-sentiment periods, but the price-discovery ability of options market remains unchanged during high-sentiment periods. These results suggest that change in aggregate investor sentiment is an important source of the time variation in options’ price discovery ability. Moreover, the options market experiences greater bid-ask spreads when investor sentiment is lower, supporting a “transaction costs mechanism.” This paper fulfills related literature on the time variation in options’ price-discovery ability.

The recent interest rate policy decisions of the South African Reserve Bank have been criticized significantly by left-leaning political parties and civic society organisations for being anti-poor, anti-labour, and pro-capital because of their implications for household debt. Existing literature has established that interest rates and house prices are insignificant determinants of household debt dynamics in South Africa. Taking advantage of additional data for the period 2013-2022, and contrary to the previous studies, the paper maintains that house prices and the central bank policy rate play a crucial role in household debt dynamics. Applying a Markov Switching regression to quarterly data for the period 1981Q1 to 2022Q1, the paper finds that house prices and the policy rate have a significant influence on household debt dynamics. It establishes the existence of a ‘house price boom, low policy rate burden’ regime and a ‘high policy rate burden, low house price’ regime. The coexistence of the ‘house price boom’ and the ‘low policy rate’ explains the debt euphoria characterised by significant household leveraging.

The clean energy revolution is a global concern. Cross-border collaboration is crucial for sharing knowledge, pooling resources, and tackling complex challenges on a global scale. International partnerships can accelerate innovation by drawing on diverse knowledge and experience from different regions. Access to capital is a key driver of innovation and entrepreneurship in clean energy. Institutional investors and financial institutions increasingly recognize the potential for high returns from the clean energy sector. This research aimed to understand whether "dirty" energies, such as the Brent Crude Spot, WTI, FTSE 350 Oil, Gas & Coal, EURO STOXX Oil & Gas, influence the formation of sustainable energy prices, namely Geothermal Index, Solar Energy Index, NASDAQ OMX Bio Clean Fuels Index, Wind Energy Index, WilderHill Clean Energy Index, during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. When comparing the two sub-periods, the results show that the level of autocorrelation in price formation has increased, i.e., the mean rhoDCCA went from 32 to 45, the weak correlation coefficients without trend decreased from 30 to 19, and the anti-persistence has also decreased from 8 to 4. The strong rhoDCCA increased from 2 to 4; during the Tranquil period, the FTSE 350 / EURO STOXX Oil index pairs had a rhoDCCA of 0.76. While in the Stress subperiod, the NASDAQ OMX Bio / Solar Energy pairs had a slope of 0.70, and the FTSE 350 / EURO STOXX Oil indices had a rhoDCCA of 0.91. Evidence shows a notable dissociation between fossil energy prices and sustainable energy sources. This dissociation is characterized by various degrees of influence between fossil energy prices and sustainable energy indices, from low to moderate. This dissociation between fossil energy prices and sustainable energy prices suggests that investments in sustainable energy can offer diversification opportunities.

The precise prediction of carbon emissions trading prices is the foundation for the stable and sustainable development of the carbon financial market. In recent years, influenced by a combination of factors such as the pandemic, trading regulations, and policies, carbon prices have exhibited strong random volatility and clear non-stationary characteristics. Traditional single-perspective prediction methods based on conventional statistical models are increasingly inadequate due to the homogenization of features and are struggling to adapt to China's regional carbon emissions trading market. Therefore, this paper proposes a multi-perspective fusion-based prediction method tailored to the Chinese market. It leverages carbon emissions trading information from key cities as relevant features to predict the price changes in individual cities. Inspired by the development of artificial intelligence, this paper implements various time series models based on deep neural networks. The effectiveness of the multi-perspective approach is validated through multiple metrics. It provides scientific decision-making tools for domestic carbon emissions trading investors, making a significant contribution to strengthening carbon market risk management and promoting the establishment and rational development of a unified carbon market in China.

Income and population growth are key determinants of housing demand, while land use regulations are designed to affect housing supply. Previous studies of housing price determinants focus either on specific regulations in particular cities/regions, or on selective subsets of major cities and regulations. This study examines the impact of land use regulations on housing prices from 1989 to 2006 in an unusually large sample of 250 major US cities. Aside from factors that are commonly associated with housing demand (income, population growth and density), housing prices are found to be associated with local cost-increasing land use regulations (approval delays) and with statewide regulations. Since statewide regulations factor prominently into the results, specific examples of the impact of different types of land use regulations are provided for 5 cities in the state of Washington. The estimated increase in housing prices associated with regulations is, on average (over 250 cities), substantially larger than the effects of income and population growth. While the estimated dollar costs associated with regulations may be sizable at times, the results are remarkably consistent with previous studies that were based on smaller cross sections.

The construction and optimization of a portfolio is a complex process that has been a historically active research area in finance. For portfolios with highly correlated assets, the performance of traditional risk-based asset allocations methods such as the mean-variance (MV) model is limited when numerous assets are correlated. A novel clustering-based asset allocation method, called Hierarchical Risk Parity (HRP), provides an opportunity to mitigate these limitations in portfolio construction. HRP utilizes the hierarchical relationships between the covariance of assets in a portfolio to determine weight distributions, eliminating the need for the inversion of the covariance matrix that is required by most traditional risk-based asset allocation methods. This research examines the viability of Hierarchical Risk Parity (HRP) method in portfolio construction of a US equity portfolio and compares the performances of HRP to traditional asset allocation methods exemplified by the mean-variance (MV) method. The results of this research show that the performance of the HRP method is comparable to the performance of the MV method. Given these findings, HRP provides an advantageous approach for portfolio construction in practical scenarios where correlated assets are present in the portfolios.

Educational equity is the foundation of social equity, and education equalization is one of the serious issues to be solved by the government. This work considers one education equalization reform conducted by Suzhou Industrial Park of China, namely, the comprehensive "five to nine" (CFTN) housing purchase admission qualification adjustment policy, as an example and uses the resold housing transaction data to identify the effect of the equalization policy by the difference-in-differences (DID) method. Based on this natural experiment, the quantitative assessment results show that (1) the CFTN policy has a significantly positive effect on housing prices in nine-year consistent (NYC) school districts that belong to high-quality school districts; (2) the CFTN policy has no significant effect on housing prices in non-NYC consistent school districts that belong to ordinary school districts. These results uncover that the one-size-fits-all CFTN policy can only obtain significant housing price equilibrium effects in school districts above a certain level of education quality. For regions with backward education levels, the policy is ineffective. For these regions, continuously increasing high-quality educational resources and increasing educational service levels are essential solutions to reduce educational inequality.

This paper investigates the degree of inflation persistence across regions in Portugal by analyzing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) growth rates for NUTS II regions. The study employs the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test to determine whether the CPI data for Portugal is stationary or non-stationary. The results of the ADF test reveal that the IPC data for Portugal is non-stationary, indicating that inflation exhibits persistence in the long run. The study further assesses the persistence of inflation by estimating an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model for each region. The Ljung-Box test is used to test for autocorrelation in the time series data, and the Hurst exponent is calculated to evaluate the presence of long-term memory in the time series data. The study finds that there is significant autocorrelation in the time series data for all regions, supporting the presence of persistence in inflation at the regional level in Portugal. The Hurst exponent also shows that the time series data for each region exhibits a high degree of persistence in inflation. Finally, the study applies the ARIMA model to each CPI division's data and uses the Ljung-Box test to test for autocorrelation in the time series data. The results show that some CPI divisions exhibited higher levels of persistence compared to others. For example, the "Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels" division exhibited high persistence, while the "Communication" division exhibited low persistence. This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring regional inflation persistence in Portugal and its implications for policymaking. The results provide insights into the inflation persistence patterns across regional levels in Portugal, by emphasizing the need to consider regional differences in inflation dynamics when formulating effective policy interventions. Understanding the persistence of inflation is crucial for policymakers to ensure price stability and sustainable economic growth.

The rise of privately issued digital currencies, which primarily serve as alternative investment assets poses a challenge to the traditional financial instruments traded in the financial market. This study examines the dynamic relationship between the major privately issued digital currency (Bitcoin) and two financial market securities in Nigeria. The paper employed Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model and presents three relevant findings. First, the impulse response function indicates the absence of a significant response of the Nigerian financial market to shocks emanating from the Bitcoin market, implying lower connectedness between the two markets. Secondly, the outcome of the variance decomposition reveals a lower contribution of Bitcoin to changes in stock prices and treasury bills, however, stock prices and treasury bills contributed higher impact to each other compared to the contribution of Bitcoin. Thirdly, a weak bi-directional causality between the Bitcoin and treasury bills was observed and a uni-directional causality running from treasury bills and stocks, implying the existence of portfolio rebalancing from the fixed income to the equities market. Despite the weak connection between digital currency and the financial market, the paper recommends that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission should maintain monitoring the development of crypto exchanges and continue reviewing the existing policy restricting cryptocurrency transactions through banks to avoid its unsavoury effects.