Alfar 2023 (Det of Issuing CBDC-4 Dkien)
Alfar 2023 (Det of Issuing CBDC-4 Dkien)
Alfar 2023 (Det of Issuing CBDC-4 Dkien)
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
JEL Classification: Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) are considered ‘digital fiat currencies’ that do not have a
E51 physical form, which is a key distinction from conventional fiat money. This study aims to
E58 identify factors that influence central banks’ decisions in taking advanced actions to issue CBDC,
G28
namely, the economic, market, demographic and technical factors. Data is collected from the
Keywords: CBDC Tracker and the WB database for the period 2013–2021. We applied the Pooled OLS es-
Money supply
timations to examine the impact of the key factors on being in an advanced stage for issuing
Central banks and their policies
CBDC; moreover, probit and logistic regression are employed to robust our results and overcome
Financial system
Central bank digital currencies the limitations of Pooled OLS. The findings demonstrate that underdeveloped economies are more
engaged in issuing CBDC. Besides, better regulations, FDI inflow, young populations, and more
urban societies would increase the probability of CBDC issuance. Nevertheless, results show the
impact of technical factors is heterogeneous across countries.
bất nhất
1. Introduction
For centuries, central banks have been trusted to provide money in the form of cash to the public as part of their public policy
objectives. However, as cash use declined, faster and more convenient digital payments have emerged and grown in volume and scope
all over the world. The Covid-19 pandemic arguably accelerated the trend of replacing cash with private digital money and alternative
payment methods (BIS, 2020). It has also been argued that, in the digital age, the growth of cashless payments and the rise of
cryptocurrencies are not only challenging central banks’ monetary prerogatives but also posing new threats to the stability and
integrity of the financial system (Perret, 2019). It is against this background of significant changes and challenges that has motivated
the central banks to look at the potential further evolution of issuing a new form of money: CBDC (Barontini and Holden, 2019).
Alongside cash and bank reserves, CBDC would represent a third form of central bank money. The arguments put forward on the
issuance of CBDC cover broad issues, such as the possible impact of CBDC on payment efficiency, banks’ fund intermediation, liquidity
crises, and the transmission mechanism of monetary policy (Yanagawa and Yamaoka, 2019). The adoption of CBDC seems offer several
benefits to the economy as a society welfare (Kwon et al., 2020; Lee et al., 2021; Barrdear and Kumhof, 2021; Williamson, 2021; Chuen
and Teo, 2021; Garratt et al., 2022). However, the introduction of CBDC might also pose potential risks to consumers, the financial
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: a.alfar@ucl.ac.uk (A.J.K. Alfar), chamaiporn@kku.ac.th (C. Kumpamool), dungntk@neu.edu.vn (D.T.K. Nguyen), r.ahmed@
kent.ac.uk (R. Ahmed).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2023.101884
Received 27 May 2022; Received in revised form 9 January 2023; Accepted 15 January 2023
Available online 18 January 2023
0275-5319/© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A.J.K. Alfar et al. Research in International Business and Finance 64 (2023) 101884
sector and the wider economy (Alonso et al., 2020a, 2020b; Kumhof and Noone, 2021; Lee et al., 2021; Davoodalhosseini, 2022).
Albeit the issuance of CBDC is gathering significant attention worldwide, there is a lack of empirical studies on CBDC as this concept is
relatively novel (Ozili, 2022a, 2022b). Moreover, most previous studies have only concentrated on the important determinants of
CBDC adoption while ignoring the potential determinants of taking an advanced action to issue the CBDC.
Therefore, this study attempts to fill this gap by specifically investigating the factors affecting the probability of a central bank
taking an advanced action to issue CBDC. In this study, the advanced stage, defined as the outcome variable, reveals whether a country
has reached the Proof-of-Concept stage, Pilot stage, or the Launching stage. The possible determinants are categorised into four
different groups including demographic factors, economic factors, technical factors, and market factors.
To achieve the objectives of this study, we employed three approaches: a linear regression model, probit model and logistic
regression. In doing so, this study contributes to the literature in the following ways. First, as one of the novel studies in this area, we
contribute to building an econometric model for the determinants of CBDC for central banks to examine before launching CBDC.
Second, to the best of our knowledge, this study filling the gap in the literature to consider various factors that determine the prob-
ability of being in an advanced stage in issuing a CBDC. In addition, the findings of this study can highlight the long-term desirable
demographic factors that increase the probability for banks of issuing a CBDC. This helps policymakers to consider the predicted
economic aspects that are likely to increase or reduce this possibility. This study also demonstrates how infrastructure is crucial for
effectively issuing CBDC. Finally, we clarify the circumstances in which market variables might influence the issuing of CBDC.
The remainder of the paper is structured whereby the second section presents the literature review on the background of CBDC and
the determinants of CBDC. The third section provides the hypothesis development for this study. The fourth section details the
methodology and descriptive statistics for the data used in the study. Section five reports the empirical findings and section six offers a
brief discussion of the results. Finally, the seventh section concludes this study and suggests policy implications.
2. Literature review
Digital currency is an innovative financial instrument as a medium of exchange using the internet to facilitate and increase online
transactions leading to a revolution to the economy (Saif Almuraqab, 2020). CBDC is one of the newest digital currencies introduced to
the general public which are authorised by an issuing central bank. The introduction of CBDC has been broadly discussed by several
modern researchers in various sectors. However, the literature is very much still in the initial stages (Bhaskar et al., 2022). Moreover,
most of the research studies in this subject are in terms of review of literature and discussion on the literature, such as the studies of
Bhaskar et al. (2022) and Ozili (2022a, 2022b). In addition, there is a lack of empirical studies on CBDC as this concept is relatively
novel (Ozili, 2022a, 2022b). For clarity, we divide the literature review into three sections. Firstly, we review the background of CBDC.
Secondly, we discuss the literature on the determinants of CBDC. Finally, we discuss on CBDC vs crypto vs fiat currencies.
There is no doubt that financial innovation has rapidly grown in the last decade after the emergence of financial technology
(Fintech). This intensive development has also significantly changed human behaviour in several aspects such as conducting financial
transactions (Ashworth and Goodhart, 2020) and the improvement of financial inclusion (Allen et al., 2022). Cryptocurrency, known
as a digital currency, which was launched by private initiatives such as Bitcoins, Dogecoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, has become
increasingly popular from 2017 to 2021 (Ozili, 2022a, 2022b). However, the supply of cryptocurrency is relatively lower compared to
its demand, which leads to inflated pricing of cryptocurrency and crypto-backed securities (Katsiampa et al., 2019). This results in high
volatility, high risks and high levels of unreliability of cryptocurrencies (Ozili, 2022a, 2022b). Central banks, therefore, aim to issue
CBDC as an alternative digital currency with lower risks and increased reliability when compared to other digital currencies in order to
respond to the challenges of the cryptocurrency market.
CBDC is defined by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a widely accessible digital form of a country’s fiat currency that could
be a legal claim on the central bank. In other words, CBDC is known as a digital money supported and allocated by a central bank or a
liability of issuing central banks (Atlantic Council, 2022; Chorzempa, 2021; Kiff et al., 2020). Moreover, a central bank can design a
CBDC with the same characteristics with like-cash, bank deposits, and interest-bearing assets (Agur et al., 2022). Recently, CBDC has
gained interest around the world, however, introducing CBDC is challenging in terms of the legal, technological, and political con-
siderations (Chen and Siklos, 2022). Around 2016, several central banks started to research CBDC (Chorzempa, 2021). According to
recent information on CBDC issuances in December 2021 from the Atlantic Council (2022), eighty-seven countries, or over nighty
percent, of global GDP are investigating in a CBDC. In addition, there are nine countries who have fully issued a CBDC, the last country
to this being Nigeria with their e-Naira digital currency. Furthermore, fourteen countries, including China and South Korea, are in the
pilot stage of preparing for fully issuing their CBDC. This indicates that CBDC has significantly developed and has become more
concrete in its conception.
Comparing a CBDC against other (non-centralised) digital currencies, Nejad (2016) highlighted the difference between CBDC and
traditional cryptocurrency. While cryptocurrency is stored in a decentralised control system on a blockchain network, CBDC is stored
in a centralised control. This indicates that cryptocurrency cannot be controlled by a single authority, but a central bank who issues a
CBDC asset can control CBDC, in line with legal regulations. Moreover, cryptocurrency relies on anonymous systems, which cannot be
controlled by monetary policies and fiscal policies from government. In contrast, CBDC is a fiat liability of a central bank, and thus it
can be used to settle payments or kept as a value asset (Söilen and Benhayoun, 2022).
Issuing CBDC could offer several benefits to the economy. Barrdear and Kumhof (2021) found that issuing CBDC in a proportion of
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A.J.K. Alfar et al. Research in International Business and Finance 64 (2023) 101884
around 30% of GDP, compared to government bonds, would lead to an increase of GDP by 3% because of a low level in real interest
rates, distortionary taxes, and monetary transaction costs., CBDC can be considered as a second monetary policy instrument to support
the stabilisation of the business cycle. In addition, the level of the bank’s risk can be mitigated by specific arrangements of CBDC
issuance. Williamson (2021) developed a new model to consider the level of panic arising within banks following the emergence of
CBDC. The author found that even if a CBDC leads to an increased level of panic within banks, the benefits in financial transactions of
CBDC are significant and potentially higher than physical currency. Therefore, this evidence can reduce the harm felt within the
financial industry resulting from a banking panic and also provide economic advantages for the wider society. Kwon et al. (2020) also
built a dual currency model and argued that the issuing of an interested-bearing CBDC can mitigate an inefficiency of tax evasion in
cash transactions and enhance social welfare, especially for tax payments. In addition, Lee et al. (2021) concluded that the adoption of
CBDC provides several benefits, including increased financial integration, an improvement of efficiency and security in financial
transactions, a reduction of the cost for cross-border payments, and an enhancement of financial inclusion. Furthermore, a CBDC can
be managed anonymously, which results in ease of accessibility for the public and also allows it to be tracked and used in both online
and offline transactions (Chuen and Teo, 2021). The interest-bearing feature of CBDC allows monetary policy to flow more rapidly
(Garratt et al., 2022). In addition, Ding et al. (2022) found that low uncertainty on CBDC can increase the strength of the performance
for manufacturing firms. Thus, it is quite clear that the issuance of CBDC offers several advantages to the economy.
On the other hand, the introduction of CBDC ameliorates the risks to financial systems and the economy. For instance, Kumhof and
Noone (2021) constructed the core principles of a CBDC system. The authors claimed that if a CBDC is issued under these core
principles and is appropriately introduced, the adverse effects on the size of the bank balance sheet or on the total individual credit, or
total liquidity provision to the economy, dissipate. However, the residual risks still persist. For example, the required interest rate for
CBDC may fall below zero during a crisis period, which is theoretical unacceptable. Moreover, the risks from having no eligible assets
to convert into CBDC in the markets is likely to remain. Lee et al. (2021) claimed that the adoption of CBDC raises homogenous
challenges and risks from a technological, economic, systematic, ethical and legal perspective, resulting in financial instability,
inconsistency in technological standards and technical scalability problems, as well as revealing gaps in legislation. Davoodalhosseini
(2022) investigated the economic impact of introducing a CBDC and found that using a CBDC gains more benefit only the case that the
cost of CBDC usage is inexpensive because of high costs of CBDC. Thus, if a CBDC issuer cannot facilitate these costs, issuing CBDC may
negatively impact the economy. In addition, Alonso et al. (2020a, 2020b) posited that CBDC can lead to an increase in cybercrime and
financial instability. Therefore, CBDC can damage the economy if CDBD is poorly introduced and unrigid in its systemic design.
It is also worth noting that while central banks are curious about CBDC, they remain apprehensive about how to adopt these digital
assets. As argued in Allen et al. (2020), most CBDC projects envisioned over the last few years have tended to make use of governance
frameworks that are authoritarian in nature. Such systems are typically highly centralised i.e., owned and controlled by one central
authority. Nonetheless, there is little incentive for consumers to adopt CBDC as it requires a high level of public trust in governments
and banking institutions. In addition, it is not easy to coordinate and achieve good performance in a huge system operated only by a
single body. Therefore, while centralised ledgers might be desirable from a management perspective, they are not in demand from the
perspective of robustness or public trust. On the other hand, there are blockchain ecosystems that allow CBDC to function in a totally
decentralised and transparent manner. Such platforms can protect the privacy of its CBDC users, prevent monetary controls as well as
transaction censorship, and demonstrate unprecedented robustness. However, decentralisation also implies a scenario whereby
transaction mistakes or operator misbehaviour can occur since there is no central control over the system. Thus, technical, legal and
regulatory questions must be answered before central banks are able decide how they would operate the distributed system.
It is clear that a CBDC can provide both benefits and drawbacks depending on the arrangement of several conditions and that
appropriate answers are lacking, especially in context of the effects of CBDC on financial, economic, and environmental stabilities
(Elsayed and Nasir, 2022). Thus, it is remains inconclusive as to whether the introduction of CBDC is likely to be successfully adopted
by the public as an alternative digital currency. While there is much interest in the adoption of CBDC around the world, including by
central banks, commercial banks, private and state institutions and other related stakeholders, there are few empirical studies since
this topic is comparably new (Ozili, 2022a, 2022b). In the study of Bhaskar et al. (2022), the authors provided a list of previous
literature related to CBDC. The authors concluded that there are six out of eight reviews on the context of fintech, blockchain, and
digital currency, while there are only two out of eight studies focused on the adoption, primary function, and comparative position of
CBDC (Chu et al., 2022; Ozili, 2022a, 2022b). This indicates that there is still little evidence in previous literature on the adoption of
CBDC. It is, therefore, advantageous to provide a further empirical study to shed light on the key determinants of CBDC.
The key determinants for issuing CBDC to achieve optimum levels of adoption from the public is important to consider. Regarding
the previous literature, there are few studies on this subject since it remains at the very early stages of development. In the context of
Netherlands, Bijlsma et al. (2021) used a representative panel of Dutch customers to examine the determinants of CBDC. The authors
found that the customer’s knowledge about CBDC, their trust in central banks, price incentives, privacy and security, and clear
communication are the potential factors to enhance the customer acceptance of CBDC. Lee et al. (2021) considered the key factors for
CBDC adoption using China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) as a case study due to the considerable success of its
implementation. The authors concluded that there are three main categories and ten factors to achieve optimum adoption of CBDC.
The three main categories are cited as an integrated and supporting infrastructure, global cooperative standards, compliance and
accessibility, and finally, inclusivity of storage and exchange. The ten enabling factors of integrated and supporting infrastructure
include digital identification, data privacy protection and interoperable value transfer gateway. The main enabling factors of global
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cooperative standards, compliance and accessibility include ease of compliance, comprehensive data, and oracle ecosystem and
open-source and trust distribution governance. The key enabling factors of accessibility, and inclusivity of storage and exchange, are
digital literacy and user experience, strong security framework and fast and stable network. In addition to this, Tronnier (2021)
claimed that an increase of privacy in payment for users is a main requirement for a central bank in order for it to successfully develop
and install a CBDC.
Davoodalhosseini (2022) scrutinised the monetary policy in introducing a CDBC for the United States (US) and Canada via three
scenarios where the currency is accessible to agents; only cash; only CBDC; and both cash and CBDC. The authors concluded that a key
factor in successfully introducing a CBDC is the cost of using the CBDC. If a CBDC is not costly, then the implementation of CBDC has
more potential than using psychical cash. However, the if using both cash and a CBDC, there is a lower likelihood for successfully
issuing the CBDC. Garratt and Zhu (2021) claimed that the size of the bank is significant. A large bank offers a higher convenience to a
customer and leads to an increase of their market power. Thus, the different size of banks can be a potential determinant of CBDC
issuance. Söilen and Benhayoun (2022) investigated the key determinants related to the adoption of CBDC. Using 282 survey ques-
tionnaires, the results from their partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and importance performance map
analysis (IPMA) revealed that the key determinants for acceptance of CBDC by households is high performance expectancy, social
recommendations and the presence of facilitating conditions. However, the confidence in the respective institution is a crucial
moderator influencing CBDC household adoption and above three determinants to build a flexible and understandable currency in the
currency’s system. Recently, Allen et al. (2022) reviewed the literature in the context of fintech, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and
CBDC using China as a case study. The authors concluded that a key success factor of digital currency launch is widespread use of the
virtual currencies by the public. Moreover, effectively designed cryptocurrency regulation works to enhance public trust in digital
currencies.
As previously indicated, there are few studies investigating the determinants of CBDC, especially in terms of empirical studies.
Some studies used only instances of successful issuance of CDBC or scenarios or modelling as case studies. For example, Bhaskar et al.
(2022) used the bibliometric data of articles published on CBDC from the Scopus database over the period of 2018–2022. The authors
received 174 final articles, which is relatively few compared to other topics. However, the authors found that there is an upward trend
for article publication related to CBDC and this has been increasing from 2018, with 4 articles, to 2022, with 36 articles, and peaked in
2021 with 81 articles. To date, the potential determinants of taking an advance action to issue CBDC has been ignored and these issues
represent significant gaps in the context of CBDC. This study aims to fill these gaps by investigating the determinants of taking advance
action to issue a CBDC. The possible determinants employed in this study consist of demographic factors, economic factors, technical
factors, and market factors.
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3. Hypothesis development
We have developed hypotheses to consider the key factors driving the successful issuance of CBDC, including demographic factors,
economic factors, technical factors, and market factors.
Demographic factors may be a potential determinant of taking an advance action to issue CBDCs as different demographics reflect
differently on financial inclusion. It is possible that demographics with high levels of financial exclusion, such as rural populations and
younger age groups, may find it difficult to adopt new CBDC due to difficulties in accessing new technologies and financial services
(Alonso et al., 2020a, 2020b). Ozili (2022a, 2022b) found that by improving levels of digital literacy in a demographically younger and
older population, especially in rural areas, increased their ability to use the e-Naira, which is the CBDC issued in Nigeria. Thus, in
relation to demographics, we hypothesise that:
H1.1: Rural population share has a negative impact on taking an advance action to issue the CBDCs.
H1.2: Young population share has a negative impact on taking an advance action to issue the CBDCs.
The previous literature has shown that CBDC can provide both advantages and disadvantages to the economy (i.e., Chuen and Teo
(2021); Davoodalhosseini (2022); Lee et al. (2021); Garratt et al. (2022)). This indicates that there is a relationship between CBDC and
economy, and thus, it is likely that economic factors are key factors on taking an advance action to launch the CBDC. In addition, Auer
et al. (2020) found that the progress of CBDC projects, in terms of preparing to issue CBDC, is higher when the informal economy is
larger. Lee et al. (2021) also found that an integrated and enabling infrastructure is the most important factor to ensure large-scale
adoption of CBDC. Thus, we hypothesise that:
H2.1: GDP per capita has a positive impact on taking an advance action to issue CBDC.
H2.2: Gross capital formation has a positive impact on taking an advance action to issue CBDC.
H2.3: Foreign direct investments inflow has a positive impact on taking an advance action to issue CBDC.
H2.4: Money supply has a positive impact on taking an advance action to issue the CBDC.
CBDC is a digital currency which needs to use technologies to create or access it. Therefore, technological factors are key de-
terminants for taking an advance action to launch CBDC. Allen et al. (2022) claimed that innovation in banking services initially
depends on technological advances including a quicker internet, higher computing power and increasing capabilities for utilising big
data. Söilen and Benhayoun (2022) suggested that trust and technological acceptance factors support increased adoption of CBDC.
Thus, we hypothesise that:
H3.1: Electricity access has a positive impact on taking an advance action to issue the CBDC.
H3.2: Technology exports has a positive impact on taking an advance action to issue CBDC.
Different markets may impact CBDC adoption differently, especially in the design of regulations to support the use of CBDC. Allen
et al. (2022) found that effectively designed cryptocurrency regulations is a key success factors of digital currencies including CBDC.
Bijlsma et al. (2021) and Tronnier (2021) also found that an increase in privacy and security is are important determinants for
customer acceptance of CBDC. Furthermore, Shen and Hou (2021) claimed that a fundamental success factor for CBDC is the existence
of market competition. Thus, it is likely that market factors are related to taking an advance action to issue CBDC and we hypothesise
that:
H4.1: Government effectiveness has a positive impact on taking an advance action to issue CBDC.
H4.2: Volume of trade in the service sectors has a positive impact on taking an advance action to issue CBDC.
4. Methodology
This section investigates the determinants of CBDC, in other words, what factors can increase or decrease the probability of a
central bank taking an advanced action to issue the CBDC.
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A.J.K. Alfar et al. Research in International Business and Finance 64 (2023) 101884
In order to investigate the determinants of issuing CBDC, the dependent variable used for this study is a binary variable that takes
the value 1 if the country was engaged in one of the advanced stages in issuing the CBDC or the value 0 if it did not. Data on the
dependent variable was obtained from CBDC Tracker1 and covers the period 2014–2021. The data includes information explaining the
status of a country at the time of issuing the CBDC. These stages are as follows:
The advanced stage, which is defined as the outcome variable in this study, reveals that the country had reached the proof-of-
concept stage, pilot stage, or the launching stage.
The selected independent variables were classified into 4 different groups:
1
Data on CBDC can be found at https://cbdctracker.org/
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A.J.K. Alfar et al. Research in International Business and Finance 64 (2023) 101884
Table 1
Key determinants of issuing a CBDC.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Variables Pooled OLS Pooled OLS with lags Probit Probit with lags Logit Logit with lags
Log (GDP capita) -0.0186 -4.038*** -6.946***
(0.0121) (1.459) (2.665)
Government effectiveness 0.00262 4.577** 7.975**
(0.0127) (1.794) (3.311)
Rural population -0.00162*** -0.00225*** -0.218*** -0.0450*** -0.390*** -0.119***
(0.000406) (0.000529) (0.0792) (0.0167) (0.145) (0.0454)
Access to electricity 0.000128 -0.0577 -0.105
(0.000355) (0.0464) (0.0847)
Internet use -0.000502 -0.0548 -0.103
(0.000486) (0.0487) (0.0918)
Young population 0.00275** 0.00395** 0.634** 0.144** 1.111** 0.401***
(0.00135) (0.00177) (0.271) (0.0570) (0.512) (0.146)
Technology exports 0*** 0*** 6.57e-11***
(0) (0) (0)
Trade in service sector -0.000411 -0.138** -0.248**
(0.000319) (0.0640) (0.116)
Gross capital formation -0.00235*** -0.712*** -1.244***
(0.000653) (0.208) (0.385)
FDI inflow 0.000474 0.152** 0.269*
(0.000798) (0.0725) (0.142)
M2 -0.000227* -0.0564** -0.0973*
(0.000135) (0.0272) (0.0501)
Log(GDP capita)t−1 -0.0281* -0.996** -2.478***
(0.0158) (0.434) (0.948)
Government effectivenesst−1 0.00811 1.160** 2.857**
(0.0166) (0.573) (1.230)
Access to electricityt−1 0.000132 0.0159 0.0105
(0.000465) (0.0288) (0.0565)
Internet uset−1 -0.000803 -0.0131 -0.0377
(0.000636) (0.0189) (0.0390)
Technology exportst−1 0*** 0*** 0***
(0) (0) (0)
Trade in service sectort−1 -0.000485 -0.0261** -0.0698**
(0.000418) (0.0129) (0.0305)
Gross capital formationt−1 -0.00342*** -0.204*** -0.499***
(0.000855) (0.0489) (0.118)
FDI inflowt−1 3.60e-05 -0.0298 -0.0520
(0.00104) (0.0282) (0.0615)
M2t−1 -0.000113 -0.00470 -0.0145
(0.000176) (0.00403) (0.00916)
Constant 0.156 0.231 22.14* 2.694 38.55 7.949
(0.112) (0.147) (13.03) (4.895) (23.85) (10.78)
Observations 630 630 630 630 630 630
R-squared 0.066 0.099
Therefore, this study assumes that economic characteristics have an impact on issuing CBDC. These economic factors include: The
GDP per capita is transformed into the logarithmic form in the model, which reflects the country’s level of income. The gross capital
formation imitates the development of the infrastructure in a country. The Foreign direct investment inflow reflects the health of an
economy from an external perspective. In addition to the money supply.
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Table 2
Predicted probabilities.
Variables Obs Mean Std.Dev. Min Max
Table 3
CBDC determinants margins.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Variables Pooled OLS Pooled OLS Probit model Probit model Logit model Logit model
with lags with lags with lags
Log (GDP capita) -0.0186 -.0458085*** -.0433941***
(0.0121) (.0142936) (.0144853)
Government effectiveness 0.00262 .0519244*** .0498222***
(0.0127) (.0180807) (.0186136)
Rural population -0.00162*** -0.00225*** -.0024744*** -.001806** -.0024355*** -0.002***
(0.000406) (0.000529) (.0008059) (0.00083) (.00079) (0.001)
Access to electricity 0.000128 -.0006549 -.000656
(0.000355) (.0005186) (.0005198)
Internet use -0.000502 -.0006216 -.0006447
(0.000486) (.0005486) (.0005698)
Young population 0.00275** 0.00395** .0071955** .0057** .0069413** 0.0074**
(0.00135) (0.00177) (.0028306) (0.0026) (.003012) (0.003)
Technology exports 0*** 4.28e-13*** 4.10e-13***
(0) (1.05e-13) (1.02e-13)
Trade in service sector -0.000411 -.0015645** -.0015502**
(0.000319) (.0006767) (.0006755)
Gross capital formation -0.00235*** -.008078*** -.0077713***
(0.000653) (.0018516) (.001853)
FDI inflow 0.000474 .0017259** .0016827**
(0.000798) (.0007638) (.0008238)
M2 -0.000227* -.0006404** -.0006078**
(0.000135) (.0002867) (.0002971)
Log(GDP capita)t−1 -0.0281* -0.04** -0.046***
(0.0158) (0.018) (0.017)
Government effectivenesst−1 0.00811 0.047** 0.053**
(0.0166) (0.023) (0.023)
Access to electricityt−1 0.000132 0.001 0.000
(0.000465) (0.001) (0.001)
Internet uset−1 -0.000803 -0.001 -0.001
(0.000636) (0.001) (0.001)
Technology exportst−1 0*** 0*** 0.000***
(0) (0) (0.000)
Trade in service sectort−1 -0.000485 -0.001** -0.001**
(0.000418) (0.001) (0.001)
Gross capital formationt−1 -0.00342*** -0.008*** -0.009***
(0.000855) (0.002) (0.002)
FDI inflowt−1 3.60e-05 -0.001 -0.001
(0.00104) (0.001) (0.001)
M2t−1 -0.000113 0 -0.000
(0.000176) (0) (0.000)
Fig. 1.
To fulfil the aim of the study, this article uses three approaches: linear regression models, probit models and logistic regression. The
study starts the analysis by using the linear regression models (LRM) to determine what factors affect the probability of a country
engaging in issuing a CBDC.
yit = α + βXit + εt (1)
In this equation, y is the outcome variable which is a binary variable that takes the value 1 if the country was engaged in one of the
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A.J.K. Alfar et al. Research in International Business and Finance 64 (2023) 101884
advanced stages in issuing the CBDC, or the value 0 if it did not, at time t and country i.
α: is the constant term.
X: is a set of determinants, with a coefficient β for each of them.
ε: is the error term.
Using the LRM has some disadvantages, including generating negative probabilities. Therefore, the study is going to use the probit
and logit models.
The main purpose of logistic regression is to quantify the dependence of the outcome variable on the independent variable(s), the
outcome variable is. However, the logistic regression does not use linear dependence. Observed data are interleaved by a logistic curve
instead of the best fitting line (Klieštik et. al, 2015). The following formula describes the use of the logistic regression:
eα+βX 1
π= = (2)
1 + eα+βX 1 + e1(α+βX)
Where π is the probability of a country being engaged in one of the advanced stages (you should remind readers here what the
advanced stages are) in issuing the CBDC.
The probit models are alternative to the logit approach. The principal difference is that the probit assumes a normal distribution of
the random variables. The difference is summarised in the fact that the logistic function has harder “fat tails”. Thus, there are no
substantial differences in practice, only in the situation where the sample encompasses numerous observations with extreme values
(Lehutová, 2011). The following formula represents the use of the probit regression:
π = Θ(α + βX)
In this formula, Θ is the cumulative density function for the standard normal.
5. Results
The analysis starts with the OLS regression; however, the OLS is not an efficient and reliable estimate to predict probabilities.
Therefore, interpretation of the results focuses on the probit logit models.
The probit and logit models report similar levels of significance for each determinant. In Table 1, the magnitude is meaningless,
nonetheless, the focus is on the direction and the level of significance. Table 3 shows the CBDC determinants margins, setting out the
effect of each determinant on the probability of being in an advanced stage in issuing a CBDC.
This paper starts the analysis without considering any impact for the endogeneity problem as shown in Table 3 models (1), (3), and
(5). Results show that there is an inverse impact for the level of income on issuing a CBDC. When a country’s GDP per capita increases
by 1%, the probability of issuing a CBDC declines by 4.5% according to the probit estimation.
Gross capital formation and money supply are other economic indicators that negatively affect the probability of issuing a CBDC.
When the gross capital formation or the money supply increased by 1%, the probability of issuing a CBDC declined by less than 1%.
Moreover, the structure of an economy can also impact the probability of issuing a CBDC, and it is noted that a service economy reduces
the possibility of engaging in issuing the centralised digital currencies.
Results have not shown a significant impact for the development of infrastructure or the level of technological development on
issuing the CBDC. Both the access to electricity and the use of the internet are insignificant. Technology exports have a very mild
impact on CBDC.
Nonetheless, demographic factors can play a significant impact, whereby an increase to the younger population of 1%, increases the
probability of issuing a CBDC by less than 1%. Yet, the increase of the rural population decreases this probability by less than 1%.
The fourth dimension that can affect the probability of issuing CBDC is market factors. The model summarises these factors into the
openness of the market to attract FDI, and government effectiveness. FDI increases the probability by less than 1%; however, when the
government effectiveness index increases by 1 unit, the probability increases by 5%.
It is noted that the stated results above may suffer from endogeneity. Endogeneity bias has the potential to provide inconsistent
estimates and inaccurate inferences, which might result in false findings and improper theoretical explanations. Such bias can oc-
casionally even lead to the incorrect direction for coefficients (Ullah et al., 2018).
Endogeneity is said to occur in a multiple regression model if:
( )
E Xj u ∕
= 0, forj = 1, 2, …, k
A statistical guarantee that an endogeneity issue can be fully handled is impossible. To properly deal with endogeneity, researchers
must first identify the causes of the issue and then take appropriate steps to lessen its harmful effects (Ketokivi and McIntosh, 2017).
The endogeneity problem can arise from any or all of the omitted variables, measurement error, and/or simultaneity in simultaneous
equations models. In this paper, we do believe that simultaneity exists as CBDC may have an effect on the economic and the market
factors primarily, and also potentially the technical factors.
To mitigate the endogeneity problem, we propose including the independent variables with one lag year. This enables us to not
expect an impact for the outcome variable on the independent variable. On all even models at Table 1 and Table 3, all independent
variables are included with one lag year except the demographic factors, as there is no chance to be endogenous. The results of these
models are consistent with the no lag models, the odd ones, which means endogeneity has a minimal impact on our results.
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6. Discussion
This section analyses the discussion of the overall results. The discussion of our findings is divided into four key factors i.e.,
economic factors, market factors, demographic factors and technical factors.
We have considered economic factors which could have a possible impact on CBDC, such as income level, gross capital formation,
trade in the service sector and money supply. Our results indicate that the impact of economic factors on issuing a CBDC is negative.
This is inconsistent with Auer et al. (2020) and Lee et al. (2021) who found that CBDC projects have significantly advanced when the
informal economy is larger or when the integrated and enabling infrastructure is higher. However, this direction of the relationship is
not misleading. Countries which have underdeveloped economies are the most engaged in these digital currencies. Based on mac-
roeconomic stability, Yao (2018) indicated that the growth of CBDC in China and other underdeveloped economies may have the
advantage of money to become stable value and control the macroeconomic tools efficiently.
Moreover, the author also highlights that CBDC diminishes crime related to physical currency, and allows payment to flow
transparently through the central bank. Kim and Kwon (2019), through a monetary general equilibrium model, also argued that
implementation of CBDC brings financial stability.
Market factors have an influence on CBDC. We consider two key elements of market factors i.e., regulatory quality and FDI inflows.
Our results indicate that market factors play an important role in issuing CBDC. Countries that have more organised and governed
markets, and attract the FDI, have a better probability for successfully issuing CBDC. Didenko and Buckley (2021) highlighted that
CBDC can provide a viable solution for financial inclusion issues in the pacific region. However, regulators must focus on developing
expertise and knowledge towards CBDC and issue well designed CBDC. Lee et al. (2021) illustrated the importance of regulators for
CBDC and argued that after implementing CBDC, there will be a requirement to constantly monitor existing regulations to support
CBDC, and act on modifications of CBDC whenever international dynamics alter the CBDC. Allen et al. (2022) also claimed that an
effective design in regulation for cryptocurrency is one of the potential determinants of digital currencies including CBDC. Moreover,
Bijlsma et al. (2021) and Tronnier (2021) found that the customer’s acceptance of CBDC can be increased when privacy and security
are also increased. On the other hand, Rennie and Steele (2021) argued that present CBDC models consist of privacy risks that could
cause losses such as loss of anonymity, loss of liberty, loss of individual control and loss of regulatory control.
Demographic factors have an important influence on CBDC. We have considered the young and rural demographics in our ex-
amination. Our results indicate that demographic factors do have an impact on issuing CBDC, and that a young population, as well as
more urban societies, have a better chance of successfully issuing CBDC. However, it is essential to promote digital literacy among the
older and younger demographic. According to Alonso et al.’s (2020) studies, the segment of population, particularly in the rural areas,
do not completely know digital technologies and may find it challenging to recognise and fully understand digital currencies.
Therefore, their lack of understanding will restrict them in their use of the digital currency to develop their welfare. In addition to this,
the elderly population also may have mobility limitations (for e.g., difficulty in getting physical cash) or knowledge of how to manage
digital applications. It is, therefore, important to launch an extensive digital literacy programme in rural areas to provide awareness
among all segments of the population. This supports Ozili (2022a, 2022b), who found that improving digital literacy, for the young and
older population, especially in rural areas, is required to increase access to CBDC. Another study, from Söilen and Benhayoun (2022),
argued that acceptance of digital currency primarily depends on social recommendations. Therefore, peer pressure within demography
also plays an important role in CBDC acceptance.
We considered technical factors that may influence CBDC. Nevertheless, results did not show a significant impact for the technical
factors. This is inconsistent with Allen et al. (2022) who stated that innovation in banking services initially depends on technological
advances including a quicker internet, higher computing power and a larger capability for utilising big data. Moreover, our results are
also different from Söilen and Benhayoun (2022), who argued that trust and technological acceptance factors increase the adoption of
CBDC. However, it is possible that while high technologies are exported by developed countries; basic technologies are accessible in
most countries. Therefore, the impact is heterogeneous across countries. In addition, technology is not a measurable tool and high-level
use of technology has negative environmental impact due to the higher demand for electricity. Therefore, it is a challenge to accurately
measure electricity across different demographics.
7. Conclusion
The execution and investigation of various factors (for instance; economic, demographic, market, and technological factors) are
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Table 4
Descriptive statistics.
Variables Obs. Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
Table 5
Matrix of correlations.
Variables -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11 -12
(1) Advance 1
(2) Log GDP capita 0.032 1
(3) Government effectiveness 0.008 0.871 1
(4) Rural population -0.116 -0.812 -0.664 1
(5) Access to electricity 0.066 0.692 0.534 -0.591 1
(6) Internet use 0.042 0.904 0.786 -0.795 0.742 1
(7) Young population 0.064 0.651 0.513 -0.515 0.773 0.707 1
(8) Technology exports 0.098 0.217 0.27 -0.137 0.145 0.16 0.207 1
(9) Trade in service sector -0.069 0.347 0.358 -0.198 0.247 0.314 0.387 -0.011 1
(10) Gross capital formation -0.104 -0.003 0.012 0.023 0.022 -0.023 0.164 0.191 0.078 1
(11) FDI inflow -0.016 0.052 0.137 -0.061 0.012 0.039 0.103 0.072 0.376 0.155 1
(12) M2 0.017 0.484 0.538 -0.41 0.389 0.454 0.405 0.495 0.284 0.043 0.306 1
increasingly dependent on CBDC. To fulfil this aim, our paper apply a linear regression model (LRM) to examine the effects of the major
key factors on issuing a CBDC at the stage of Proof-of-Concept, Pilot, or Launching. In addition, probit and logistic regression are also
employed to robust our results and overcome limitations of LRM. We have also extended our analysis to examine endogeneity issue.
The results showed that economic factors negatively affect the probability of a central bank issuing a digital currency. However,
urbanisation and a young population, which reflect the demographic factors, positively impact on the probability. The same result was
obtained for the market factors. Nonetheless, the study found that the development of technology and infrastructure have no impact on
the likelihood of issuing a CBDC.
Our results show a gateway to managers to be learned about CBDC. This provides as a reminder to policymakers that collaborative
infrastructure design should be given priority in order to accommodate CBDC when they are implemented. Investigators are working
very hard to figure out how CBDC relate to global commerce and other assets, including cryptocurrencies. Theoretical advancement,
contextual coverage, and technique improvements are all very desirable. The development of CBDC might lead to the creation of a
universal common currency, and they have significant consequences for financial and payment systems.
The CBDC may replace cash in the future. Therefore, we are proposing that future studies may investigate the likely effects of
currency digitalisation on the dominance of the US dollar and the British pound. The management of the global transaction system and
its costs in a diverse ethical, technical, social, legal, economic, and political context should be on the other future plan. The CBDC
should also investigate how CBDC will affect other digital currencies, how that will affect monetary policy, and how it will affect the
money supply.
Moreover. policymakers should pay more attention in developing technical awareness and knowledge for elderly people; as well as
the infrastructure in rural areas, if they are intending to issue CBDC.
Furthermore, countries which intend to issue a CBDC should set long-term plans to develop and stabilise the markets in order to
attract investments and reflect a good image of the economy. Despite this, weak economies are likely to have a better probability of
issuing digital currency. This leads us to recommend that a detailed review of the economic situation of the developing countries is
implemented prior to issuing CBDC. It is not complicated to issue the CBDC; however, it is more challenging to protect and promote the
new currency.
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Data availability
Appendix
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