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Local governments have introduced local currency systems to stimulate regional economies by encouraging local spending and preventing financial outflows. Since the success of a local currency depends on residents’ active participation, understanding consumer preferences is essential for designing effective systems. This study used a choice experiment and stated preference data to identify the features that most influence local currency adoption. Using the conditional logit model, the analysis revealed that purchase limits, merchant coverage, number of service businesses, local infrastructure, and incentives significantly impact users’ willingness to participate. The scenario analysis further highlighted the necessity of regional differentiation in currency platforms. By adopting an urban analytics approach, these results offer evidence-based insights for policymakers aiming to establish robust, spatially differentiated local currency platforms that bolster regional economic vitality across diverse urban contexts.

•Frist study on illicit drugs on Local Currency, the Bristol Pound by LC/MS/MS.•Preliminary study identifies conditions for future work.•Ketamine levels notably higher than other reports. Reports have shown the prevalence of the contamination of banknotes with a number of different drugs. These studies have focused on investigating drug contamination levels on currency which is either nationally or even international distributed. To present there has been no studies undertaken on banknotes circulating in well-defined and limited geographic areas. In this present study we have investigated the presence of drug contamination on the Local Currency, circulating in a known geographic area in and around the city of Bristol, UK; the Bristol Pound (£B). The effect of sample size was investigated and a post-hoc statistical power analysis undertaken. Following liquid extraction with the aid of sonication, levels of cocaine, benzoylecgonine, MDMA, ketamine and methamphetamine were determined by liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Seven samples of each denomination in circulation were investigated. The calculated median values per note were 2030ng cocaine, 91.9ng benzoylecgonine, 0.779ng methamphetamine, 62.8ng MDMA and 3440ng ketamine. This study focuses on our preliminary studies and to our knowledge this is the first investigation focused on the drug contamination of a Local Currency.

This study assesses the plausibility of local currency contribution to the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) arrangement. First, we investigate the (net) demand for local currencies in foreign exchange reserves because introducing local currency contribution is efficient only when sufficient demand exists. The main results are as follows. i) Substantial demand exists for local currencies in foreign exchange reserves. ii) The size of the demand for local currencies in foreign exchange reserves is large in comparison with the size of the maximum withdrawal from CMIM. iii) Net demand for local currencies in CMIM tends to be positive. Second, the stability of local currencies is analyzed by calculating the exchange market pressure index because costs of local currency contribution to CMIM arrangements can be high if local currencies are unstable. The results suggest that several currencies of ASEAN+3 members are as stable as popular non-U. S. international currencies for various sub-periods. The results in terms of stability of the currency, internationalization of currency, and liberalization of capital account transactions, indicate that the Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, and Korean won could first be considered eligible for local currency contribution to CMIM arrangements. Overall, the results may support the idea of introducing local currency contribution to CMIM arrangements.

Growth remained strong in the region in 2012, with regional GDP rates increasing in most countries (excluding Nigeria and South Africa). Projections point to a moderate, broad-based acceleration in growth to around 5½ percent in 2013¬14, reflecting a gradually strengthening global economy and robust domestic demand. Investment in export-oriented sectors remains an important economic driver, and an agriculture rebound in drought-affected areas will also help growth. Uncertainties in the global economy are the main risk to the region's outlook, but plausible adverse shocks would likely not have a large effect on the region's overall performance.

Complementary currencies are increasingly recognized worldwide as a valuable tool for supporting the development of local and regional communities. This paper explores the role of functional complementary currencies in fostering regional socio-economic advantages and the potential benefits they offer to local communities. The research employs a critical review of existing literature and a comparative analysis to highlight differences in the use of complementary currencies across various contexts. The study identifies key areas where complementary currencies provide support and includes an analysis of user perceptions within a multilateral barter system, focusing on both the benefits and concerns associated with complementary currency use. These currencies are closely aligned with the principles of sustainable development, with their impacts categorized into three primary pillars: social, economic, and environmental. The successful introduction of complementary currencies requires social acceptance and cooperation from local communities. To deliver long-term sustainable benefits, complementary currencies must be implemented in an economically and socially sustainable manner.

This research investigates the spillover effect of the US interest rate and oil prices on renewable energy utilization in Turkey. By employing a novel bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag approach on annual data from 1985 to 2016, the empirical findings and discussions represent the first contribution to the energy economics literature. The findings of this research confirm that the US interest rate has a significant spillover effect on the use of renewable energy in Turkey through the channels of income and local interest rate. Due to limited foreign exchange reserves, high foreign debt, low international reserves, and devaluation of the local currency, the Turkish economy is highly intertwined with the US economy through international investment and trade. All these factors reinforce the spillover influence of the US interest rate on energy consumption in Turkey. Moreover, this study affirms that the price of oil has a negative impact on renewable energy use through the real income channel. In order for Turkey to realize its investments in renewable energy resources more reliably and sustainably, the study suggests that policymakers should revise the current economic growth model by making it more resilient to external shocks such as the US interest rate, exchange rate, and oil prices.

Renewable energy is key to the development of Ghana’s power sector especially for the replacement of fossil fuels, which have become much a talk globally for contributing to climate change. Unfortunately, Ghana has seen little development and deployment in the renewable energy sector mainly due to the numerous challenges/obstacles hindering the growth of the sector. Therefore, there is the need to identify these obstacles and find possible mitigation measures for the development of the sector. The study therefore employed a desktop analysis of the literature, survey approach and collected data from renewable energy developers and institutions. The study based on the survey collected data on identified obstacles, ranked them from most notable to least notable to be addressed if the country needs to develop the renewable energy sector. Evidence from the survey indicated that the average score to obstacles ranged from 4.13 to 2.52 on a scale of 0–5 and the overall average score was 3.17 indicating that all the selected barriers are key to the development of renewable energy in Ghana. The study shows that, the most challenging obstacles include; cost of financing high interest rate, lack/insufficient incentives (tax rebate, grants etc.), lack/inadequate access to finance and long-term capital, grid connection constraints and lack of grid capacity, instability of the local currency (currency fluctuations), insufficient technical know-how for the operation and maintenance of renewable energy technologies. Ghana has enough policies and regulations to overcome these challenges if they are well implemented and enforced. The survey conducted also looked at respondents’ point of view on the most critical policy instruments for the development and deployment of renewable energy technologies in Ghana.

Request food online is daily present in the life of people, however, it is necessary to send delivery information to different restaurant systems and sometimes these restaurants share customer sensitive information with their partners without the authorization of the customer creating a security risk with customers data. Also, in most cases when a person travels to a different country and wants to request food online, it is necessary to use the local currency, requiring a currency exchange operation. This paper evaluates a proof-of-concept (POC) of the integration of blockchain in the food industry, allowing customers to order food online through a sidechain, an exclusive blockchain with specific custom transaction types for restaurants. The FoodTransaction type is responsible to order food and store cryptographically customer sensitive information that only the customer itself and the requested restaurant can read, hence it respects customer privacy. Furthermore, the blockchain cryptocurrency can be used anywhere in the world. The performance evaluation shows a great advance in throughput when compared to the use of the payment solution on Bitcoin applications. Finally, the results show the possibility to extend the restaurant sidechain business to several restaurants in the world and in different time zones.

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We examine the co-movement between exchange rate (EXR) returns and stock (STK) returns in Africa amid COVID-19 in a time and frequency domain. Therefore, we employ the bi- and partial wavelet and the wavelet multiple correlation techniques using daily data from 13 February 2013 to 6 May 2021. Our findings divulge that COVID-19’s effect does not increase the intensity of the relationship between EXR and STK returns in Africa but causes a significant difference in the lead-lag relationship between the two assets. We find a strong likelihood for a high market integration between African markets in the long run, regardless of market conditions. Under general market conditions, South African (Namibian) equities have the lead/lag potential in the short and long run (intermediate term). Namibian stocks are the first to respond to shocks before all other remaining variables in the intermediate term, while in the long term, the South African EXR market is the last variable to experience shocks. Owing to the recently intensified alliances between African markets, investors should be wary of the specific African equities they include in their portfolios in the periods ahead. Policymakers are required to have an in-depth understanding of the nature of the co-movement between the variables to ensure timely and operative policy responses are rolled out to minimise adverse fluctuations in stocks and the local currencies.