Payment Support Research Articles

Citizens go digital: A discursive examination of digital payments in Singapore’s Smart Nation project

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation efforts in many countries as they try to contain the virus. With the physical handling of cash posing as a potential virus transmission risk, digital payments have become important in the urgent transition to a cashless society and a key feature of smart city projects. Critical analyses have typically framed smart cities as neoliberalist developmental projects that see the partnering of the state with private corporations. However, it is unclear how the smart city emerges under the technocratic inclinations of the developmental state. Focusing on the digital payments project under Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, this paper unpacks the discursive practices employed in mobilising citizen support for electronic payments through a critical analysis of publicly available government materials and recent initiatives. The discourse surrounding digital payments is bound up in narratives surrounding economic competitiveness, technological progress and public health and safety, and strongly rooted in a technocratic governance ethos that limits genuine citizen participation in shaping smart payments technologies. This paper argues that such discursive framings represent a missed opportunity to build a smart city that is truly citizen-centric. This reorientation requires more bottom-up and grassroots-based modes of governance that reformulate smart citizenship into one that pays greater attention to the affective and social contexts behind digital technologies.

KESEDARAN JENAMA APLIKASI SHOPEE DALAM MEMPENGARUHI KEINGINAN MEMBELI

Shopee is a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan (Haryani Ngah, 2017). It is a platform that provides online buying and selling services that facilitate interaction between sellers and buyers. In addition, Shopee provides secure payment support and strong logistics options. According to Keller (2013), brand awareness is by enhancing brand habits through repeated exposure, i.e. in general it is effective for brand recognition and brand remembering. This means the more consumers have the experience of seeing the brand, listening, or thinking about it, the more likely consumers are to list the brand in their mind. According to Wu, Yeh, and Hsiao (2011), purchase intentions indicate the possibility that consumers will plan or are willing to buy certain products or services in the future. An increase in purchasing intentions reflects an increase in purchasing opportunities. This paper will discuss the findings of a study on Shopee brand awareness and the intention to purchase. There are two specific objectives namely the first; to identify the relationship between remembering the Shopee brand and the intention to purchase at Shopee, and second; to identify the relationship between Shopee brand recognition and intention to purchase at Shopee. This study uses quantitative methods. Questionnaires are distributed online to university students throughout Malaysia. A total of 152 respondents answered the questionnaire. The results of this study found that brand awareness that is able to remember and identify the Shopee brand has a relationship with the intention to buy at Shopee.

Cryptocurrency: mechanism of functioning and prospects of distribution in the conditions of globalization

Purpose. The aim of the article is deepening ideas about the place, role, tasks and mechanism of operation and prospects for the spread of cryptocurrencies as an innovative institutional form of money circulation in the context of globalization. Methodology of research. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study are the dialectical method of cognition, the conceptual provisions of economic theory, scientific works of foreign and domestic scientists on the mechanism of operation and prospects for the spread of cryptocurrencies in the context of globalization. A systematic approach to the study and timely detection of global problems of transformation of the nature of financial intermediation in the monetary system is also used. The study of economic aspects of the content of virtual digital assets (cryptocurrency) is carried out using such methods as analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, scenario planning and forecasting of economic processes. Findings. A critical review of scientific developments on the content and features of the mechanism of cryptocurrencies in the economy with further outline of prospects for their spread in the context of globalization is performed. The developed theoretical and practical principles made it possible to reveal the content of transformations in the system of money circulation. The conducted research allowed to state the difference between the quasi-financial assets (digital virtual money) and traditional (fiduciary) money. Originality. The substantiation of theoretical and applied ideas about the speed and volume of distribution of virtual digital currencies in the conditions of globalization has been further developed, approaches to non-state payment support systems have been systematized. Practical value. The results of the conducted study can be the basis for further research on the spread of virtual digital currencies (cryptocurrencies), can also be used to shape the financial policy of Ukraine in the monetary system. Key words: cryptocurrency, global economy, financial intermediation, central bank, digital platforms.

Experimental evidence for conservation conflict interventions: The importance of financial payments, community trust and equity attitudes

Abstract Conflicts between the objectives of agricultural production and conservation are becoming increasingly complex. Of vital importance to the success of conflict interventions is a detailed understanding of how stakeholders react to management interventions as well as the influence of interacting social and political factors. Across Europe, goose populations have increased considerably, leading to widespread impacts on agriculture and significant conflicts between different stakeholder groups. We used a novel experimental game to understand farmer preferences regarding the design of goose conflict interventions in Scotland. We specifically examined how three alternative interventions (government financial support for scaring activities, subsidies and agglomeration payments that include bonus payments for adoption by neighbouring farms) affect farmer propensity to support goose conservation interests through reduced shooting and the provision of sacrificial crops. We also examined the links between within‐game behaviour and real‐life attributes and attitudes of farmers. We found that all three interventions were conducive to pro‐conservation behaviour in the games. The effects of all three interventions were stronger among farmers who had higher trust towards other community members. Agglomeration payments led to increased provision of sacrificial crops among farmers with negative attitudes towards the current allocation of goose finances in Scotland. Farmers with more positive attitudes towards wildlife tourism were more likely to provide more sacrificial crops, and less likely to shoot in the games. Farmers' real‐life traits had a statistically significant but marginal impact on the effectiveness of financial payments, such as the number of geese being shot on their own lands, remoteness and crop damage by geese. These game results provide evidence for the potential of innovative financial instruments in conflict management and their interactions with social factors such as community trust, equity attitude and real‐life shooting levels. Our study highlights the importance of socio‐political elements in fostering mutually beneficial outcomes in conservation conflicts in addition to addressing material losses to wildlife. We also show how games can help in addressing conservation conflicts in a wide range of settings. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Venezuelan migrants in Colombia: COVID-19 and mental health

Venezuelan migrants in Colombia: COVID-19 and mental health

A Payment Security Mechanism for Off-Taker Risk in Renewable Energy Projects in India

India’s renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022—including 100GW of solar and 60GW of wind—is an ambitious path to meeting increasing energy demands. Meeting this goal is not going to be easy; India faces a shortage of attractive capital to meet its renewable energy targets. Investors face two major risks to investing in India, including in renewable energy: currency risk and off-taker risk. Off-taker risk is a key contributor to the overall credit risk of power projects in India, adding as much as 1.07 percentage points of additional risk premium to the cost of debt for renewable energy projects. Mitigating the off-taker risk requires long-term structural fixes focused on addressing the systematic failures of the utilities sector. However, short-term solutions are still needed to mitigate the off-taker risk. One short-term solution to mitigate off-taker risk is a government-sponsored payment security mechanism that would provide assurance that the payments under power purchase agreements are made on time. In this article, the authors lay out a framework for designing a payment support mechanism for single off-takers, to effectively achieve target credit enhancement in the beneficiary projects. They find that, barring outliers, the average payment security support in their sample turns out to be 12 months, or 10%–20% of capital expenditure, which is significant. They also discuss avenues for future research.

A survey of cultivation and current working situation of PICC specialist nurses

Objective To investigate cultivation and current working situations of PICC specialist nurses (SNs) . Methods Using convenience sampling method, all trainees who participated in PICC advanced training course held by Chinese Nursing Society from 3rd to 7th July 2017 were selected as the research objects. All the nurses were investigated a Cultivation and Current Working Situations of PICC Specialized Nurses designed by the Professional Committee of Intravenous Therapy of Chinese Nursing Society. A total of 82 questionnaires were distributed and 82 valid questionnaires were collected. The research data were analyzed by SPSS 16.0 software. Results A total of 82 trainees were recruited from 65 hospitals from 18 provinces, cities and autonomous regions. There were 34 (52.3%) hospitals having open and transparent criteria for selecting SNs. 45 (69.2%) hospitals reimbursed the cost of PICC training courses, while 20 (30.8%) hospitals' bonuses were unaffected. The median ratio of total intravenous therapy SNs to total registered nurses in their departments was 0.125. Of 82 PICC specialist nurses, 34 (41.5%) were on nursing management posts, 40 (48.8%) worked in and out of the hospital, 37 (45.1%) worked in specialist nursing clinics, 51 (62.2%) were nursing consultants, 50 (61.0%) worked as specialist nurses educators, 19 (23.2%) took scientific research subjects and 24 (29.3%) published academic papers after participating in specialist nurse training. Conclusions In recent years, the team of PICC specialist nurses has developed rapidly, the work place has been expanded, and the work content is more abundant. However, there is no open selection criteria for PICC specialist nurses in many hospitals. Payment support for PICC specialist nurses during training is not fully guaranteed. The role orientation of PICC specialist nurses needs to be further clarified. The role of specialist nurses has not been fully played and their scientific research ability needs to be further improved. It is suggested that nursing administrators should formulate the training, use and management system of specialist nurses, set up specialist nurses posts, and promote the rational development of specialist nurses. Key words: Nurses; PICC; Nursing consultation; Specialized nursing clinic; Cultivation; Use

In Exchange for Nothing: Marriage Payments and Old-Age Support in China

Given the large value of marriage payments in China, parental support for children's marriage payments is common, which may serve as a strategy of parents to assure their old-age support. In this paper, I investigate whether parents offer marriage payments to children in exchange for the provision of old-age support from children in the later period. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), I first analyze the provision of marriage payments in the context of intra-household allocation. Increasing maternal resources makes children, especially daughters, more likely to receive marriage payments from parents; whereas changes in paternal resources do not matter for the likelihood of offering marriage payments. Compared to their non-recipient siblings, children who used to receive marriage payments do not provide parents with more financial support, which is a strong rejection of the exchange motive for offering marriage payments to children. However, parents do benefit from human capital investment in their children, implying that to receive old-age support from children, parents should invest in the human capital of their children in their early years instead of non-human capital in their adulthood.

Financial Vulnerability of Dairy Farms Challenged by Johne's Disease to Changes in Farm Payment Support.

Johne's disease is an endemic contagious bacterial infection of ruminants which is prevalent in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. It can lower financial returns on infected farms by reducing farm productivity through output losses and control expenditures. A farm-level analysis of the economics of the disease was conducted taking account of farm variability and different disease prevalence levels. The aim was to assess the financial impacts of a livestock disease on farms and determine their financial vulnerability if farm support payments were to be removed under future policy reforms. A farm-level optimization model, ScotFarm, was used on 50 Scottish dairy farms taken from the Farm Business Survey to determine the impacts of the disease. A counterfactual comparison of five alternative “disease” scenarios with a “no-disease” scenario was carried out to evaluate economic impact of the disease. The extent of a farm's reliance on direct support payments was considered to be an indicator of their financial vulnerability. Under this definition, farms were grouped into three financial vulnerability risk categories; “low risk,” “medium risk,” and “high risk” farms. Results show that farms are estimated to incur a loss of 32% on average of their net profit under a standard disease prevalence level. Farms in the “low risk” and “medium risk” categories were estimated to have a lower financial impact of the disease (22 and 28% reduction on farm net profit, respectively) which, along with their lower reliance on farm direct support payments, indicate they would be more resilient to the disease under future changes in farm payment support. On the contrary, farms in the “high risk” category were estimated to have a reduction of 50% on their farm net profit. A majority of these farms (61%) in the “high risk” category move from being profitable to loss making under the standard disease scenario when farm support payments are removed. Of these, 15% do so because of the impact of the disease. These farms will be more vulnerable if changes were to be made in farm support payments under future agricultural policy reforms.

Kırşehir Ahi Evran Üniversitesi, Ziraat Fakültesi, Tarım Ekonomisi, 40100 Kırşehir

Tarımsal destekleme politikaları ülkelerin tarım sektörünün sürdürülebilir olması açısından önemlidir. Politika araçları ülkeler ve dönemler bazında değişiklik gösterebilmektedir. Bu araştırmada, Türkiye‘de arz açığı yaşanan ayçiçeği, soya, aspir ve kolza ekiliş alanlarına fark ödemesi desteklerinin etkileri araştırılmıştır. Araştırma, 1994-2016 yıllarını kapsamaktadır. Granger Nedensellik Testi ve Johansen Cointegration Testi‘nden yararlanılmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre, fark ödeme desteklerinin ayçiçeği üretici kararları üzerinde etkisi istatistiksel olarak önemli bulunmuştur. Aspir, kolza ve soya ekiliş alanlarında ise etkisi önemli görülmemiştir. Ancak, incelemeye alınan ürünlerin cari fiyatları ile fark ödeme desteklerinin etkileşim içerisinde olduğu belirlenmiştir. Buna göre, geçmiş dönemlerde destekleme politikalarında yaşanan sorunlar da göz önünde bulundurularak fark ödemesi desteklerinin katılımcı bir yaklaşımla tekrar tartışılması önerilebilir. Söz konusu desteklerin sürdürülmesi piyasa fiyatları açısından koruyucu nitelikte olduğundan bir gereklilik olarak ifade edilebilir. Ancak, bir taraftan desteklerin bütçe içerisindeki yeri diğer taraftan üretici gelirlerine olan etkileri göz önünde bulundurularak dengeli bir politika yaklaşımından uzaklaşılmamalıdır.

The Influence of Organizational Culture on E-Commerce Adoption

This study aims to investigate the influence of different organizational cultures on e-commerce adoption in Jordanian commercial banks. The study is of value to banks by helping them to evaluate their readiness to adopt e-commerce through reviewing the type of leadership, risk appetite, innovation and e-commerce activities. As banks are designing and deploying a range of new e-commerce products, the importance of pursuing and conducting business online becomes relevant, as, if they fail to respond to the opportunities, banks could be consigned to a largely secondary role as e-commerce shifts over time. E-commerce is progressing by creating new streams of competition and compelling banks to make choices about services they offer, networks branch size and distribution, and the extent of their support for interbank payment network.The major findings of this study have indicated that there is a positive correlation between organizational culture and e-commerce adoption. More specifically, the study has revealed that the adhocracy system of organization and management is more prevalently implemented in e-commerce activities than other systems in Jordanian commercial banks. In contrast, hierarchy cultural commercial banks are not adopters of e-commerce activities, and the organizational culture differences explain these issues. A number of recommendations have appeared in light of findings; managers need to place greater focus and attention on their organization culture if they pursue innovation/imitation of strategies. Jordanian commercial banks are advised to focus on activities that enhance e-commerce adoption as to evaluate its status quo in terms of characteristics and the prevailing culture type. This is in order to successfully apply the adoption effectively and efficiently by filling the gap between the association of organization culture and e-commerce adoption.

Samara and Simbirsk nobility role in education promotion and support at the turn of XIX–XX centuries

The paper deals with the nobility charity of the Samara and Simbirsk provinces at the end of XIX beginning of the XX centuries. The provincial nobles because of their privileged class status sacrificed their money to promote and support education among both the nobility and other classes. Donations were sent to the noble educational institutions such as school, cadet corps, universities, as well as to schools for the lower classes: teachers schools, peasant schools and colleges, vocational schools, training workshops. The paper analyzes the main forms of support for students establishment and payment of nominal scholarships to students of high schools, universities, military schools, content of education both for the nobility and for students from other classes. Students of such institutions were often on full board basis at the expense of the nobility. In addition the nobles were initiators of charitable societies, which were engaged in material support of students as well as led boards of trustees at various educational institutions. The study of pre-revolutionary Russian education support experience helps us to find ways to develop and encourage students nowadays.

France and European macroeconomic policy coordination: from the Treaty of Rome to the euro area sovereign debt crisis

French support for European (EC/EU)-level macroeconomic policy coordination has been driven by remarkably consistent preferences since the 1950s. With the exception of the de Gaulle decade (1958–1968), French governments have sought European-level mechanisms for balance of payments support. This article sets out to explain these remarkably stable French preferences on European-level macroeconomic policy coordination over time through a combination of an interest-based analysis referring to structural and competitive weaknesses of the French economy and an ideational explanatory analysis focused upon French Keynesian thinking on symmetrical adjustment of both deficit and surplus countries. French preferences align largely with the concept of ‘embedded liberalism’. This article also interprets a number of developments in EU-level economic governance in response to the banking and sovereign debt crises that provided a policy window for France to move European-level mechanisms and institutions towards long-held French preferences.

Exchange Rate Volatility and Malawi’s Tobacco Exports to The United Kingdom and The United States

The availability and sources of foreign currency in Malawi have become the subject of prominent policy debates in the country in the recent past. Malawi, which traditionally relies on agriculture and foreign aid for foreign currency earnings and balance of payments support, has experienced a shortage of foreign currency. It is against this background that this paper examined the relationship between the responsiveness of Malawi’s tobacco exports to the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (US) markets for the period between 1995 and 2011. The objectives of the study were to examine the impact of exchange rate volatility on Malawi’s tobacco export earnings to the UK and the US and to determine and compare the volatility coefficients between the two export destinations. Based on the GARCH modelling, the paper found that exchange rate volatility in Malawi varies over time. When there is market disequilibrium in the long run relationship for both markets, there are differences in the rapidity of adjustments relating to the exchange rate volatility coefficient, but these are not significant. For example, the error correction term for tobacco exports to the US is -0.2389, while the error correction term for tobacco exports to the UK is -0.2341. This means that there is a relatively faster recovery in the disequilibrium for the tobacco exports to the US than that experienced for the UK market. Given these findings, it is important for researchers and policy makers to pursue appropriate exchange rate policies that will promote exchange rate volatility in Malawi, since the results show that exchange rate volatility has a positive effect on tobacco exports. Hence, the monetary authorities should pursue free and floating exchange rate policies to achieve exchange rate volatility. In addition, authorities should pay particular attention to the collusive behaviour of tobacco buyers, in order to avoid price fixing at the auctions.

Barriers to access to hepatitis C treatment.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. Only 1%-30% of patients in need of treatment may get it. In recent years, the availability of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA) has been an important advancement in treating HCV infection. However, due to cost, it is not possible to receive these drugs in many countries where infection is endemic. In these low- and middle-income countries, the main barriers to controlling HCV infection are lack of knowledge about the infection, constraints on diagnostic testing and treatment, and lack of experts. Both national and international support are essential to overcoming these barriers. In low- and middle-income countries, interferon and ribavirin-based therapies still are the first choices due to their availability and to government payment support. In addition, in developed countries, efforts to provide lower-cost DAA drugs continue. Pharmaceutical companies continue to research manufacture of bio-equivalent drugs to reduce treatment costs. Considering the fake drug market, all developments need to be monitored closely by the institutions involved. This review focuses on barriers to hepatitis C treatment and ways to overcome those barriers.

Extending SIP to support payments in a generic way

The growth of users connected to the Internet with a high bandwidth connection hasfavored the increase of multimedia services. As many of these services are provided by means of SIP, adding support for payment to SIP might benefit vendors. Payments in SIP have been proposed for accessing services, for microbilling and even as a solution to SPAM in VoIP systems. Current proposals have some limitations such as either not being suitable for low payments or micropayments, or not supporting the use of different payment protocols or the payment is always made for the whole session or they do not take into account that streams of different quality could have different prices. In response to these limitations, we propose a new SIP extension for supporting any kind of payments (both micropayments and macropayments) on SIP. In addition to being payment-independent, our proposal solves interoperability problems. Our proposal is based in an standard extension of SDP and SIP in order to maximize the compatibility. This facilitates the deployment of payment in SIP-based services. Moreover, our SIP extension supports an offer/answer model that allows the choice of the quality of the streams as well as the payment options to use. Furthermore, it is flexible and not only supports payment but also more complex business models such as loyalty models, credentials and subscriptions. In this paper, we provide a generic way to incorporate new payment methods and business models in the vendor's software. Using some application scenarios, we make a comparison between our proposal and previous work to show some of the advantages of using our proposal.

Kwestie nierówności w systemie wsparcia bezpośredniego w krajach Unii Europejskiej w świetle nowego budżetu na lata 2014-2020

The paper presents the issue of the role and the importance of direct payments in the European Union agriculture in the context of the new financial framework for 2014-2020. The purpose of direct payments, introduced in 1992, was to equalize the income of farmers, who had, and still receive the lower income than people employed in the other sectors of the national economy. Direct payment support has been divided taking into account different models. The largest sub-sides per one hectare is acquired by farmers from Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands and Malta, while the smallest in Latvia, Romania, Estonia and Lithuania. Many studies show that the differentiation between the income of farmers and the incomes of other groups is decreasing, but the constant increase of disparities between the farm’s income, as well as the farms from different countries, is growing. This is the effect of, primarily, different systems of direct subsidies calculations, so called models of direct payments. There are many critical voices relating to these different systems that causes elimination of disparities in the EU agriculture impossible. Changes of the system of direct payments are essential, with, first of all, harmonizing the system of direct payments between Member States, taking into account the new methods of counting with for example: GDP per capita, the average income of household, the amount of received aid, the effectiveness of agricultural production, as well as natural conditions (the quality of agricultural land, terrain, climate, etc.).

Legitimating the CAP: The European Commission's Discursive Strategies for Regaining Support for Direct Payments

In its public discourse, the European Commission presented the EU’s most recent Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a paradigm change. Many observers of the CAP reform process, however, describe the recent agreement as a lost opportunity for change. This article describes and analyses the Commission’s discursive strategies in response to the legitimacy challenges regarding the CAP’s direct payments. We draw on the work of Mark Suchman (1995) to analyse these responses. The analysis reveals a progression of legitimation strategies that can be linked to the broader institutional environment, the setting of the ongoing policy process and the (critical) reaction of civil society organisations to these strategies. Besides shedding light on the progression of legitimation strategies, this article contributes to the literature on the Commission’s legitimation strategies more generally by linking the Commission’s public discourse to its public consultation regime.

Sacred Values? The Effect of Information on Attitudes toward Payments for Human Organs.

Are attitudes about morally controversial (and often prohibited) market transactions affected by information about their costs and benefits? We address this question for the case of payments for human organs. We find in a survey experiment with US residents (N=3,417) that providing information on the potential efficiency benefits of a regulated price mechanism for organs significantly increased support for payments from a baseline of 52 percent to 71 percent. The survey was devised to minimize social desirability biases in responses, and additional analyses validate the interpretation that subjects were reflecting on the case-specific details provided, rather than just reacting to any information.

Nonstandard employment and nonwork activities, time alone and with others: Can weekend workers make up lost time?

To what extent can weekend workers reschedule nonwork activities or time with significant others to weekdays? From the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006, a sample of employed persons aged 15–64 ( n = 3860) is drawn to examine associations between weekend work and time spent in nonwork activities, time spent alone, and time spent in the company of family (partners, children, nonresident family, and elders) and friends, on days worked and over the following week. All analyses examine differences by gender. Workers’ lost weekend time is not recovered over the week; rather, in some instances there are persistent negative effects. Sunday workers are most affected. The findings add to knowledge about work–family conflict and gender differences in managing boundaries between employment and private life. There are implications for workplace policy, as the results offer support for penalty rate payments for weekend work.