Payment

The article examines integration of cryptocurrencies as electronic payment systems in e-commerce enterprises. Practical usage of Ethereum and Bitcoin cryptocurrencies as electronic payment systems, as well as factors that may affect their functionality are studied. Coinbase Commerce and Bitpay, as market leaders in cryptocurrency payment providers, were analyzed to compare integration issues and commission analysis with traditional payment systems LiqPay, PayPal. It is determined that the factors influencing the integration of cryptocurrencies in the enterprise include the field in which this enterprise is operating, instability of the national currency, development of information technology. It has been proven that e-commerce companies specializing on selling consumer goods could use hybrid cryptocurrency payments in Bitcoin in 50% of transactions and Ethereum in 65% of transactions in the studied timeframe to reduce the cost of the transaction compared to the LiqPay system.

The issue of organization of payments to employees at the enterprise is the basis of social and labour relations of employees, employers and the state, affecting the effectiveness of labour management in general, they are one of the most critical and complex areas of work, occupying a central place in the accounting system. The authors analyzed the theoretical and methodological basis of payments to employees, compared to international and domestic standards for employee benefits. Authors also analyzed the dynamics of average and minimum wages over the past 10 years, and revealed the features of the organization of wages and the general scheme of accounting for wages. The authors demonstrated the essence of the concept of "payments to employees" and its components, analyzed in detail the features of the existing practice of accounting and audit of settlements with employees. A thorough theoretical and methodological analysis of the study allowed the authors to propose improvements in accounting for settlements with employees on practical examples, namely the detailed structure of account 66 "Payments to employees". The authors also proposed an improved audit methodology that will allow the auditor to cover all aspects of payroll accounting, investigate the correctness, timeliness, legality of reflection in payroll, cover all aspects of payroll accounting, identify violations promptly, conduct a quality audit.

Introdução Parte I: Revisão de Literatura 1.Conceitos e gestão de Risco 2.O risco e a estratégia de internacionalização 2.1.O risco nas decisões de internacionalização 2.2.Os tipos de risco no comércio internacional 2.3.Risco Cambial 3.A gestão do risco no comércio internacional 3.1.Técnicas de pagamento e fontes de financiamento no comércio internacional 3.2.Técnicas de cobertura do risco cambial 3.3.Técnicas de cobertura do risco da taxa de juro 4.Técnicas de gestão do risco disponíveis para as empresas portuguesas 4.1.Técnicas de pagamento e formas de financiamento no comércio internacional 4.2.Técnicas de gestão do risco cambial 4.3.Técnicas de gestão do risco da taxa de juro 4.4.Técnicas de gestão do risco e apoios financeiros para a internacionalização em países com economias emergentes 5.Técnicas de cobertura do risco mais utilizadas em Portugal Parte II: Estudo empírico 6.O estudo de caso 6.1.Apresentação da empresa 6.2.O nível de internacionalização da actividade 7.A exposição ao risco no comércio internacional 7.1.Caracterização do risco do país IV Resumo Uma vez que a globalização dos negócios é um factor cada vez mais importante, este trabalho reflete a importância da gestão do risco nos mercados internacionais, identificando-os, bem como suas as técnicas de cobertura. Procurou-se fazer uma ligação entre as técnicas de cobertura do risco e as técnicas de pagamento abordadas pela literatura, com as técnicas à disposição das empresas portuguesas, bem como verificar se estas estão preocupadas com esta problemática e se fazem uma eficaz gestão do risco nos mercados internacionais. Foi também realizado um estudo de caso sobre uma empresa portuguesa que aposta fortemente na internacionalização, apresentando um volume de negócios para fora de Portugal acima dos 70%. Verificou-se que esta empresa apresenta algumas preocupações relativas ao risco, mas que não utiliza instrumentos financeiros para o efeito, sendo que o principal motivo é a não existência destes no seu principal marcado-Angola. Apesar da empresa estar bastante sujeita ao risco cambial, é o risco de crédito o seu principal problema, através dos atrasos nos recebimentos. É, portanto, crucial que a empresa expanda o seu negócio para outros mercados internacionais com baixa correlação com os actuais, evidenciando o efeito de diversificação, com o objectivo de diminuir o risco.

In the living world, the technology is advancing day-by-day in different areas like Internet of Things, machine learning, artificial intelligence, automation and so on. The main focus of this paper is to improve the process of shopping for customers and saving their time because people spend more time in the supermarket due to the traditional billing process. For example, customers purchase several items in the supermarket. While purchasing they might face some problems like a long queue in a billing section and overshooting the budget. Sometimes people also find it difficult to locate an item easily and this takes time. To overcome this scenario, we proposed an IoT based Smart Shopping Cart. It consists of three NodeMCU boards, RFID module, Motor driver, Chassis, a centralized Database and an Android app “EaseShop”. The customers can add products into the cart using the app. During shopping, the customer can scan the required products using RFID and the details will be displayed on the LCD and will be updated in the centralized database. The payment can be done through the app. The customer can control the movement of the Trolley using the App.

This study seeks to validate a comprehensive model of consumer acceptance in the context of mobile payment. It uses the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model with constructs of security, trust, social influence, and self-efficacy. Structural equation modeling is used to construct a predictive model of attitudes toward the mobile wallet. Individuals' responses to questions about attitude and intention to adopt/use a mobile wallet were collected and analyzed with various factors modified from UTAUT. While the model confirms the classical role of technology acceptance factors (i.e., perceived usefulness and ease of use are key antecedents to users' attitude), the results also show that users' attitudes and intentions are influenced by perceived security and trust. In the extended model, the moderating effects of demographics on the relations among the variables were found to be significant. The proposed model brings together extant research on mobile payment and provides an important cluster of antecedents to eventual technology acceptance via constructs of behavioral intention to use and actual system usage.

College Website is that the Growing significance of internet sites for various organizations is well known. Today, a well-planned digital strategy plays a significant role in an institution's marketing strategies-especially considering younger generations' growing dependence on technology. Put simply, a well-designed website will facilitate you're engaging, current students, connect with prospective ones, and inform parents all without delay. It encompasses promoting school events, displaying course offerings, and showcasing campus life, etc. during this paper, we discuss the models submitted by our team, login, Admin panel, Instructor, Fees payment, and About us page. For these modules, we've used technical stacks React.js, Bootstrap (Front-end), Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB for Database.

In today's competitive markets for a business success it is essential to fully understand customers, to strive to maximally satisfy their desires and preferences, and on this basis build a solid, long-term and fruitful relationship with customers. This is the core of customer relationship management. Good customer understanding is the basis for increase of customer lifetime value, which encompasses customer segmentation. The goal of customer segmentation is to group customers by common characteristics in the way that created segments are profitable and growing which will enable companies to target each segment with specific offerings. This cannot be done without utilization of intelligent methods and techniques for data analysis. The focus of this research is on business strategy driven customer segmentation, in attempt to maximize customer potentials which is the most important resource in business, with the focus on credit users' segmentation task in banking industry. Presented case study illustrates usage of multilayer feed forward neural network to segment bank customers into two groups: customers who have and who have not problems with payments.

The failure of the barter system to simplify the difficulties of bringing two people together in terms of their wants, agreed measurement and values of the commodities involved in exchange and many other problems, led to the development of money which intermediates between the buyer and the seller. In our modern day economy therefore, a country"s level of economic development largely depends on the platform upon which her financial resources is exchanged for goods and services through a sound payment and settlement system. However, the development challenges associated with business complexities vis-a-vi the technological advancement manifested some inefficiency in using cash as a means of payment and settlement system which continued to necessitate the need for non-cash payment alternatives. This paper entitled"Electronic Banking: The way forward to national security and economic development in Nigeria"made an attempt to compare the two alternative payment systems (the cash and the non-cash) in Nigeria and expound the advantages of the noncash payments system over the cash payment system in the provision of national economic development. The data for the study was sourced from publications of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and relevant text books. The final output found that the adoption of non-cash alternative channels has both user friendly and multiplier effect advantages capable of creating better efficiency in the task of managing the national economy. The adoption of the non-cash payments system can also meet the strict needs of international anti-money laundering policies which will enhance Nigeria"s profile and acceptability in the world financial scene. It is therefore recommended that there is the need for government to further the laudable reforms towards ensuring quick accessibility to both business and non-business financial by an average Nigerian and the creation of an atmosphere conducive for effective information dissemination about the benefits of a non-cash payment channels for the customer would be attained.

The sugar mill industry is one of the largest industry of the world. The industry can survive only with the production of sugar cane. To increase the production of sugar cane farmer's satisfaction is necessary. The various factors which affect the level of farmer's satisfaction and the performance of sugar mill industry are taken for the present study. The opinion of the farmer about industry and their suggestions for the growth of industry are also taken for the present study. Simple percentage methods are used for interpretation of data. Hundred farmers from Jind district are selected randomly for the present study. From finding of the studies the author wants to give the suggestions to the management for improving farmer's satisfaction. Keeping in mind the above factors the present study has been taken.

Digitalization has played a vital role in flourishing the Indian economy. The biggest example is the job opportunities created in the country for youth. In addition to the above, “make in India” drive has given an immense push to youngsters to start new startups and think of creative ideas to contribute to digitalization of India. The government on its end is pushing and encouraging the Indian public to go cashless and reduce reliance on cash transactions. The purpose is to make us adopt digital payments. Digital transactions make us follow a legal path which is helpful to flourish the economy. Use of plastic money gives freedom as well as security to citizens of the country because it works on technical grounds. Digital payments will be helpful to the global world. Since cash is the primary mode of transactions in money laundering and terrorism funding, a digital society would discourage such laundering and terrorism. Digital infrastructure’s backbone is the availability of high-speed internet. With the introduction of better and faster mobile internet connections, the services through Digitalization have been delivered in an efficient way to the citizens of the country.

Sejak akhir tahun 1990-an, orang-orang telah menikmati gaya hidup yang nyaman. Perangkat mobile yang didukung oleh perkembangan jaringan nirkabel telah menyebar ke seluruh dunia. Orang-orang dapat memperoleh informasi, memesan tiket, mengunduh lagu dan melakukan transaksi komersial yang disebut mobile commerce. Aplikasi mobile commerce menjadi aplikasi yang paling digemari bagi para pengguna perangkat mobile yang menginginkan melakukan transaksi bisnis dan keuangan dengan mudah dan aman, kapan saja dan dimana saja mereka berada. Saat ini penggunaan uang tunai secara fisik sedang mengalami penurunan popularitas di dunia bisnis, karena mulai digantikan oleh pembayaran non-fisik yang sering disebut uang elektronik (electronic money, e-money). Sebuah teknologi penting di balik pembayaran mobile adalah Near Field Communication (NFC). Sebagai indikasi bahwa NFC mempunyai potensi bisnis yang luar biasa, perusahaan terkemuka seperti Nokia, Microsoft, Visa Inc. dan MasterCard Worldwide dan NXP Semiconductors, secara aktif terlibat menggarapnya. Proses pembayaran yang terintegrasi dengan teknologi NFC berbasis sistem operasi mobile yang sedang trend saat ini yaitu Android yang mendukung teknologi NFC yaitu versi 2.3.3 Gingerbread. Prototipe aplikasi bayar dirancang untuk 2 sisi pengguna yaitu pada sisi user sebagai konsumen dan pada sisi merchant sebagai pedagang/penjual dengan menggunakan handset yang sudah memiliki teknologi NFC yaitu Google Samsung Nexus S. Prototipe aplikasi bayar juga mengimplementasikan konsep keamanan dalam transaksi e-commerce dengan menggunakan protokol Tag-to-Tag sehingga kebutuhan pengguna untuk keamanan dan kenyamanan selama bertransaksi finansial terpenuhi.

For the capacity of any warehouse is limited, it has to rent warehouse (RW) for storing the excess units over the fixed capacity W of the own warehouse (OW) in practice. The RW is assumed to offer better preserving facilities than the OW resulting in a lower rate of deterioration and is assumed to charge higher holding cost than the OW. In this paper, a twowarehouse inventory model for deteriorating items is considered with constant demand under conditionally permissible delay in payment. The purpose of this study is to find the optimal replenishment policies for minimizing the total relevant inventory costs. Useful theorems to characterize the optimal solutions have been derived. Furthermore, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the proposed model, sensitivity analysis of the optimal solutions with respect to major parameters is carried out and some managerial inferences are obtained.

This study reviews the economics, logistics, and technology underlying the South African experiment of prepaid electricity. Although this experiment has resulted into benefiting large masses of small and dispersed consumers, it has also generated a set of new problems that could not be visualized at the inception of the experiment. The success of this program can be largely attributed to a number of factors, including a good marketing campaign, innovative tariff schedules, better planning and management, and so on. Lessons learned from this experiment are useful for policy-making purposes in other developing countries of Africa and Asia. r

The Contingent Ranking MethodFa feasible and valid method when eliciting preferences for health care? The objective of the study was to determine the feasibility and validity of the contingent ranking method, when eliciting preferences and measuring willingness to pay for health care. A measurement experiment based on ranking data is reported. Marginal willingness to pay for alleviation of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms that may be the outcome of a treatment with a novel anti-rheumatic agent, cA2 (now called TNF-a blockade) was calculated. The estimated marginal willingness to pay value was 650 DKK ($93). With regard to the health status variables and income variable the signs of the coefficients were, as expected, positive. The contingent ranking method is a feasible and valid method for eliciting preferences and determining willingness to pay estimates. r

This research was performed in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official view or policies of the FHWA or TxDOT. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. The Researcher in charge of the project was Nasir G. Gharaibeh, P.E.

This article proposes an integration of Smart Cards into an environment controlled by a Residential Gateway. In a common scenario, the Residential Gateway offers services with different characteristics. Some services belong to profiles of a user and thus these services have a mobile behavior. As a consequence, these profile-related and thus user-specific services are configured via a Smart Card. The Smart Card serves as a medium easy to transport but it added more features to the scenario like the possibility of cryptographic services, secure payments for example for pay-per-view or environment's customization. The core of this work has been carried out in order to achieve an integration between two existing technologies: OSGi (Open Service Gateway Initiative) and Java Card. * This work is partly supported by the Spanish Ministry of Industry via the MEDEA+ projects TRUST-eS (A-306) and Planets (A-121).

In this paper, we investigate the possibility that a Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile phone, with an embedded secure element (SE), could be used as a mobile token cloning and skimming platform. We show how an attacker could use an NFC mobile phone as such an attack platform by exploiting the existing security controls of the embedded SE and the available contactless APIs. To illustrate the feasibility of these actions, we also show how to practically skim and emulate certain tokens typically used in payment and access control applications with a NFC mobile phone. We also discuss how to capture and analyse legitimate transaction information from contactless systems. Although such attacks can also be implemented on other contactless platforms, such as custom-built card emulators and modified readers, the NFC enabled mobile phone has a legitimate form factor, which would be accepted by merchants and arouse less suspicion in public. Finally, we propose several security countermeasures for NFC phones that could prevent such misuse.

Evidence about the best methods with which to accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals is urgently needed. We assessed the effect of performance-based payment of health-care providers (payment for performance; P4P) on use and quality of child and maternal care services in health-care facilities in Rwanda. 166 facilities were randomly assigned at the district level either to begin P4P funding between June, 2006, and October, 2006 (intervention group; n=80), or to continue with the traditional input-based funding until 23 months after study baseline (control group; n=86). Randomisation was done by coin toss. We surveyed facilities and 2158 households at baseline and after 23 months. The main outcome measures were prenatal care visits and institutional deliveries, quality of prenatal care, and child preventive care visits and immunisation. We isolated the incentive effect from the resource effect by increasing comparison facilities' input-based budgets...

A logit model is used to estimate provider choice from six types by malaria patients in rural Nepal. Patient characteristics that influence choice include travel costs, income category, household size, gender, and severity of malaria. Income effects are introduced by assuming the marginal utility of money is a step function of expenditures on the numeraire. This method of incorporating income effects is ideally suited for situations when exact income data is not available. Significant provider characteristics include wait time for treatment and wait time for laboratory results. Household willingness to pay (wtp) is estimated for increasing the number of providers and for providing more sites with blood testing capabilities. Wtp estimates vary significantly across households and allow one to assess how much different households would benefit or lose under different government proposals. r

The COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the world, including Indonesia, has had a very serious impact on all sectors. This also makes a real contribution to the very rapid progress of technological development. All activities that were previously usually carried out in person, but now have to be done virtually or online. So that internet-based technology that is always used by the community is the most efficient to use during this pandemic, including in terms of payment transactions. The increasing number of internet users, which continues to rise from year to year, especially during this pandemic has caused many internet-based applications. The application of digital technology in the economy is very clear, especially in the financial sector, which is called financial technology. One of the products of financial technology is mobile payment or also called e-wallet. The rise of e-commerce on various online platforms has also led to an increase in payments using e-wallet. This research wa...

The purpose of this study was to find out whether or not new habit, cashless transaction, would still be used after the Covid-19 pandemic or in the new normal era, considering that this was a situational or temporary factor. The population of this research was individual consumers who were currently more likely to have higher intensity in cashless transactions than they did before the pandemic. This research was a study conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesian society by examining the effect of perceived security, perceived risk, facilitating condition, Self-Efficacy of trust in online payments, and the use of cashless on Usage Continuance intention. The results of this study with 594 tested samples were two insignificant correlations. They were perceived risk toward trust in online payments and self-efficacy on usage continuance intention. These findings could support a wide range of stakeholders - both first movers/ pioneers and newcomers to the e-money segment, as the...

Clinical trial data and fracture risk prediction models unequivocally demonstrate the utility of identifying prevalent vertebral fractures to predict future fractures of all types. Knowledge of prevalent vertebral fractures can alter patient management decisions and result in initiation of therapy to reduce fracture risk in some patients who would not otherwise be treated. Cost-benefit analysis demonstrates that identifying and treating patients with vertebral fractures, even those with a densitometric classification of osteopenia, is cost effective. Vertebral fractures can be readily identified in the office setting using standard radiography or Vertebral Fracture Assessment (VFA), a software addition to a central dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) machine. In the United States, VFA was assigned a Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code in January 2005. Nevertheless, coverage of VFA has not been uniformly embraced by Medicare carriers, companies that contract with the federal government to administer Medicare coverage and process claims for a region of the United States. Unlike DXA, for which uniform national coverage of qualified Medicare beneficiaries is mandated by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, VFA coverage policies are determined by the local Medicare carriers. Third-party insurers are also variable in their coverage of VFA. This International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD) White Paper documents the role of VFA in the evaluation and treatment of women with postmenopausal osteoporosis and compares it with standard spine radiography. Arguments used by some Medicare carriers and insurers to deny coverage of VFA in the United States are analyzed and critiqued. For health care providers within the United States, this White Paper may serve as a resource to respond to insurers who deny coverage of VFA. For health care providers regardless of their country, this article underscores the value of VFA as an alternative to spine radiography in the evaluation and management of postmenopausal women with suspected osteoporosis.

This paper describes recent developments in the governance of public transport in the Netherlands, focusing on bus, tram, metro and regional train concessions. Most of these concessions are competitively tendered. Competitive tendering was introduced in 2001 and Dutch authorities have since chosen different concession setups and forms of contract remuneration. This paper explores that variety and describes recent changes at the national and regional levels. The paper describes key trends and lessons from the Dutch experience based on a seven-year project drawing lessons on competitive tendering with authorities, operators and consultants, and based on interviews with 16 of the 19 public transport authorities. Key trends are dealing with fragmentation and maturing governance by fine-tuning incentives and cooperation forms between public transport authorities and operators.

In recent years, there is a noticeable increase of cashless transactions due to the development of financial technology. As a result of being expansion of fintech products such as e-wallet, consumers are shifting from cash-based to cashless. Young adult consumers in 21st century are regarded as tech-savvy as they were born in the era of smartphone technology. This study aims to examine the influencing factors for Malaysian young adults to use e-wallet as a payment method by applying extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Total of 330 data were collected from the users of e-wallet in the area of Klang Valley of Malaysia and analyzed by deploying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). By applying two-step approach for instance, measurement model for indicator loadings, convergent validity, reliability and structural model for path analysis the findings from this study reveal that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and privacy and security have positive and significant relationship with behavioral intention to use e-wallet. This study helps the service providers of the digital marketplace further to have better understanding of the usefulness of using e-wallet for transaction purposes.

Clearing has been an important part of the banking system and will always remain a part of it for years to come. Clearing in banking indicates the transfer of fund from one person to another. This clearing of fund can take place in 2 ways either through cash or through cheque. There has been no major change in the cash transactions except for the changes in value of money. However the cheque clearing system has undergone lot of changes. The origin of cheque can be traced back to the first century AD, where banks in and around Persia used to issue letters of credit called "Sakks" wherein the banks used to pay the identified payees as per the instructions. This eliminated the cumbersome process of carrying money or gold which was very risky. Changes have taken place in cheque clearing over the period of time. From ordinary cheque clearing to MICR clearing and finally to the latest in clearing 'Cheque Truncation System'. This is a conceptual paper which tries to explore the changes that have taken place in the bank clearing system in the past, present and will also try to visualise the future of bank clearing.

Traditionally Land Use Cover Change (LUCC) studies have focused on processes of negative land-cover change, primarily deforestation, partially because examples of positive land-cover change were not common. During the last two decades an outstanding tropical dry forest restoration process had taken place in the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, which has given us a unique opportunity to study how and why tropical dry forest regrowth occurs. The purpose of this paper is to undertake a retrospective analysis of the social dynamics of forest deforestation and restoration in Guanacaste from 1960 to 2005. Hence we investigate how structural drivers shape patterns of forest-cover change and examine how the role that Costa Rica's conservation policies had played in promoting forest restoration. Our study combined analyses of socioeconomic data and satellite images of forest cover. We showed that forest regrowth observed in Guanacaste after the 1980s was the result of multiple socioeconomic factors. Our results indicate that the degree of incentive provided by conservation policies such as Payment for Environmental Services are not enough to ensure that Guanacaste's forest will be protected against the potentially negative impacts of future socioeconomic changes. The findings from our analysis can assist decision-makers and managers in other regions to understand how social, economic and political dynamics impact the effectiveness of forest conservation efforts.

The Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS): complications, such as vascular access failure, at consid-An international hemodialysis study. The Dialysis Outcomes erable expense and morbidity. The Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS) is a prospective, longituand Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS) is a prospective,

The economic lot scheduling problem (ELSP) is a challenge between sequencing and lot sizing. In this problem, several products must be produced on a single machine in a cyclical production pattern and the primary goal is to minimize the total setup and holding expenditures. Since time affects the value of money, it is necessary to take into account the time value of money when gradual payment is the case. In this paper, a new ELSP model with the consideration of the time value of money is considered. The proposed model of this paper is formulated as a nonlinear mixed integer model and a hybrid GA is presented to solve the resulted model for large-scale problems. The proposed method is solved for some benchmark problems for large-scale problems.

The supply of kidneys does not meet the demand. As a consequence, the waiting time for a cadaver kidney continues to lengthen, and there is renewed debate about payment for living donors. To facilitate this debate, we studied what amount of payment would be cost-effective for society, i.e. what costs would be saved (if any) by removing a patient from the waiting list using a paid (living unrelated: LURD) donorvendor. A Markov model was developed to calculate the expected average cost and outcome benefits of increasing the organ supply and reducing waiting times by adding paid LURD organs to the available pool.

We use an information-theoretic approach to describe changes in lending relationships between federal funds market participants around the time of the Lehman Brothers failure. Unlike previous work that conducts maximum-likelihood estimation on undirected networks, our analysis distinguishes between borrowers and lenders and looks for broader lending relationships (multibank lending cycles) that extend beyond the immediate counterparties. We find that significant changes in lending patterns emerge following implementation of the Interest on Reserves policy by the Federal Reserve on October 9, 2008.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the degree of adverse selection in the Korean individual annuity market using the money’s worth calculations. The insurers’ pricing of different annuity products reflects individual’s self-selection into products based on private information about their mortality prospects. Using payments offered for different products, money’s worth calculations were higher for younger and male annuitants, annuity with a bigger premium size and longer guarantee period, frontloaded (as opposed to level) annuity, joint (as opposed to single) annuity, tax-qualified (as opposed to non-tax-qualified) annuity, and deferred (as opposed to immediate) annuity. In a cross-country analysis, we observe that the cost of adverse selection is higher in countries with more generous social security income.

— Cryptocurrency as a digital product has grown significantly. Cryptocurrency as a digital currency has been accepted by the world community, with different implementations in each country. Indonesian law regulates cryptocurrency as a commodity product that can be traded on the Futures Exchange. As a commodity, cryptocurrency monitoring is carried out by BAPPEBTI (Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency). The position of cryptocurrency as a commodity is unfortunate by some, who expect cryptocurrencies to be recognized as legal tender as is the case in some countries. Securities law regulates the elements that must be met in order for an object to be recognized as a means of payment. This is also supported by current practices, namely the level of significant fluctuations in cryptocurrencies and the absence of government intervention which makes the government unable to carry out its role as controller. This study aims to determine the position of cryptocurrency in the perspec...

In a deregulated environment, when talking about electricity markets, one usually refers to energy market, paying less attention to the reactive power market. Active and reactive powers are, however, coupled through the AC power flow equations and branch loading limits as well as the synchronous generators capability curves. However, the sequential approach for energy and reactive power markets cannot present the optimal solution due to the interactions between these markets. For instance, clearing of the reactive power market can change active power dispatch (e.g. due to a change of transmission system losses and the capability curve limitation), which can lead to degradation of the energy market clearing point. This paper presents a coupled day ahead energy and reactive power market based on the pay-at-MCP settlement mechanism. Besides, the proposed coupled framework considers voltage stability and security issues and branch loading limits. The coupled market is cleared through optimal power flow (OPF). Its objective function includes total payment of generating units for their active power production along with the total payment function (TPF) of units for their reactive power compensation. Moreover, lost opportunity cost (LOC) of the units is also considered. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is examined on the IEEE 24 bus Reliability Test System.

Most electronic cash (e-cash) based payment systems that have been proposed do not possess the property of transferability. Transferability in an e-cash based system means that when a payee receives an electronic coin in a transaction he may spend it without depositing the coin first and getting a new coin issued from a bank. Usually electronic coins that are transferred in a transaction have a lifetime of the transaction itself. In this paper, we propose a payment system where coins can be transferred over multiple hands, spread over various transactions, similar to physical cash. Detection or prevention of double spending of coins is a critical issue in online e-cash payment systems. In our system the verification is distributed across multiple entities as opposed to the case of a coin-issuing entity or a central bank alone being responsible for the verification. A resolution mechanism for handling disputes is also presented. The proposed system provides guarantees of anonymity, fairness and transferability.

The principal focus of this paper is to study carrier pricing decisions for a new type of vehicle routing problems defined in a competitive and dynamic environment. This paper introduces the Vehicle Routing Problem in a Competitive Environment (VRPCE), as an extension of the Traveling Salesman Problem with Profits (TSPP) to a dynamic competitive auction environment. In the VRPCE, the carrier must estimate the incremental cost of servicing new service requests as they arrive dynamically. The paper presents a rigorous and precise treatment of the sequential pricing and costing problem that a carrier faces in such an environment. The sequential pricing problem presented here is an intrinsic feature of a sequential auction problem. In addition to introducing the formulation of this class of problems and discussing the main sources of difficulty in devising a solution, a simple example is constructed to show that carriers' prices under first price auction payment rules do not necessarily reflect the cost of servicing transportation requests. An approximate solution approach with a finite look-ahead horizon is presented and illustrated through numerical experiments, in competition with a static approach with no look-ahead.

Ein wichtiges und derzeit nur unbefriedigend beherrschtes Problem beim Betrieb digitaler Bibliotheken ist die Verrechnung und Vergütung kostenpflichtiger Dienstleistungen. Dies betrifft sowohl den Umgang mit bekannten als auch besonders mit anonymen Nutzern sowie die Kooperation der digitalen Bibliotheken untereinander. Das Projekt Chablis 1 zielt auf die Entwicklung und Integration eines geeigneten mediengerechten Abrechnungs-und Zahlungssystems, das es erlaubt, flexibel und effizient das kostenpflichtige Dienstleistungsangebot von digitalen Bibliotheken einer breiten Nutzerschaft zugänglich zu machen. Im einzelnen strebt Chablis die Erfüllung folgender Forderungen an:

Multinational supply chains operate in more than one country or tax jurisdiction and face decision problems concerned with trade flows of resources, products and services, transfer prices, and allocation of transport costs between their divisions. These decisions must consider, for the sake of optimality, corporate and governmental parameters such as the payment of dividends and royalties, ownership of and control over subsidiaries, income taxes differentials, duties and quotas, etc. In this paper, we generalize and extend the Theory of the Multinational Firm to the case of multinational supply chains. We propose a model that is more general and comprehensive than the previous ones proposed in the literature. To be more specific, our model integrates many of the previous research factors and includes new ones, such as transport costs and duty drawbacks, which are critical for supply chains that operate under international trade regulations. Under the maximization of the repatriated earnings objective, we study the optimality conditions of the corporate decision variables to derive managerial guidelines and to determine how decisions regarding trade quantities, transfer prices, and transport cost allocations affect the amount of taxes to be paid to host governments as well as the total after tax repatriated earnings of the corporation. independent profit centres, and to keep track of divisions' performance. Note, however, that TPs may be used by some MNSCs to manipulate taxes. To be more specific, MNSCs may design transfer pricing mechanisms so as to avoid paying taxes to the host country of a division or to the home country of the headquarters, and to transfer funds between countries where their divisions are located; thus, avoiding the official or regular channels. In practice, both corporations and governments are aware of the potential uses of TPs which explain why governments are suspicious of TPs and why corporations need to choose these TPs carefully to avoid any penalties. For these reasons, among others, the interests and goals of MNSCs and nation states are often in conflict. These conflicts arise from a fundamental difference in the roles of businesses and governments. In fact, business enterprises are responsible for the efficient management of their operations (e.g., profit maximization) while governments have a wider mandate than efficiency. Governments' responsibilities lead them to introduce taxes, tariffs, and other regulations and tools designed to increase the welfare of certain groups in the nation state. Therefore, MNSCs must operate within this regulatory environment of national controls and respond the best they can. Specifically, when governments impose various taxes as well as commercial and regulatory policies, the MNSC can, to a certain degree, reallocate resources and redistribute profits between countries by using transfer prices. This may not only weaken these regulations and thus national sovereignty, but also it is often perceived to have undesirable effects on variables such as national output and employment levels, consumer prices, government income and the balance of payments. As a result governments view transfer pricing mechanisms with suspicion and attempt to prevent their ''manipulative'' use. In many nations, transfer prices are regulated to conform to an idealized arm's-length standard, i.e., the market price that would have been negotiated by unrelated parties bargaining at arm's length. The best known of these regulations are Sections 482 and 925 of the USA International Revenue Code.

Background: Racial disparities in health care are widespread in the United States. Identifying contributing factors may improve care for underserved minorities. To the extent that differential utilization of services, based on need or biological effect, contributes to outcome disparities, prospective payment systems may require inclusion of race to minimize these adverse effects. This research determines whether costs associated with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) care varied by race and whether this variance affected payments to dialysis facilities.

This paper summarizes an explorative study of the novel design and security that contribute to consumers' adoption of an integrated, single platform payment system encompassing card, Internet and mobile technologies in the ASEAN. The attempt to survey these areas in an integrated fashion is a novel approach that differs from existing studies that mainly focus on adoption factors of these technologies in isolation as well as focuses on the novel design and the security elements. The empirical results from the quantitative analysis suggest that design, security, perceived usefulness as well as perceived ease of use are significant factors that contribute to consumers' intention to utilize a single platform payment System. Organizations will be able to utilize the study information for developing products and services that meet the consumers' single platform E-payment system while also fulfil their objective of corporate social responsibility.

We present the findings of a choice experiment designed to estimate consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for voluntary participation in green energy electricity programs. Our model estimates WTP for a generic ''green energy'' source and compares it to WTP for green energy from specific sources, including wind, solar, farm methane, and biomass. Our results show that there exists a positive WTP for green energy electricity. Further, individuals have a preference for solar over a generic green and wind. Biomass and farm methane are found to be the least preferred sources.