Global ETF News Older than One Year
IMF Working Papers-Housing Affordability: A New Dataset
December 1, 2023-- Summary:
The rapid increase in house prices in the past few years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, raises concerns about housing affordability. The price-to-income ratio is a widely-used indicator of affordability, but does not take into account important factors such as the cost of financing.
The aim of this paper is to construct a measure of housing affordability that takes these factors into account for a large set of countries and long period of time. The resulting dataset covers an unbalanced panel of 40 countries over the period from 1970Q1 to 2021Q4. For each country, the index measures the extent to which a median-income household can qualify for a mortgage loan to purchase an average-priced home. To gauge the performance of the constructed indices, we compare them to other readily-available mesures of affordability and examine the evolution of the indices over time to understand the relevant drivers, including in a regression analysis to assess the extent to which government housing programs could contribute to improving affordability.
Source: imf.org
The AI Awakening
November 30, 2023--Generative AI has introduced tantalizing new possibilities. Yet the initial excitement surrounding AI has given way to genuine and growing concerns. This issue is an early attempt to understand AI's implications for growth, jobs, inequality, and finance.
Full disclosure: This issue of Finance & Development was produced entirely with human intelligence.
But someday soon at least parts of this magazine may be assisted by artificial intelligence-a topic that has dominated global discourse since ChatGPT's introduction one year ago.
Generative AI has introduced tantalizing new possibilities in both the public and private spheres. Think how these "machines of the mind" can improve health care diagnoses, close education gaps, tackle food insecurity with more efficient farming, drive planetary exploration-not to mention eliminate the drudgery of work.
Yet the initial excitement surrounding AI has given way to genuine and growing concerns-including about the spread of misinformation that disrupts democracy and destabilizes economies, threats to jobs across the skills spectrum, a widening of the gulf separating the haves and have-nots, and the proliferation of biases, both human and computational.
Source: IMF.org
Digital Technologies Fast Track Climate Solutions
November 29, 2023--Digital technologies are transforming the way the world works and addresses climate change, from cutting emission across industries, to facilitating greener transport networks and mitigating impacts with early warning systems. As governments are looking for solutions that match the urgency and scale of the climate crisis-digital technologies are a key tool in this effort.
A World Bank report, Green Digital Transformation: How to Sustainably Close the Digital Divide and Harness Digital Tools for Climate Action, underscores how digital tools can boost sustainability across industries but must also reduce their own carbon footprint. For example, WEF estimates show that digital technologies could cut emissions by up to 20 percent by 2050 in the three highest-emitting sectors: energy, materials, and mobility. And two thirds of countries include technology as part of their national climate plans to help adapt to or mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Source: worldbank.org
IMF Staff Climate Note-Energy Transition and Geoeconomic Fragmentation: Implications for Climate Scenario Design
November 28, 2023--Summary:
The transition to a low-carbon economy, which is needed to mitigate climate change and meet the Paris Agreement temperature goals, has been affected by the supply chain and energy supply disruptions that originated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent energy crisis and exacerbation of geopolitical tensions.
These developments, and the broader context of the ongoing "polycrisis," can affect future decarbonization scenarios. This reflects three main factors: (1) pullbacks in climate mitigation policies and increased carbon lock-in in fossil fuel infrastructure and policymaking; (2) the decreasing likelihood of continuous cost reduction in renewable energy technologies; and (3) the likely intensification of macroeconomic shocks amid increasing geoeconomic fragmentation, and the associated policy responses.
In this context, the note assesses the implications of the polycrisis for hypothetical scenarios used to assess climate-related financial risks. Following an analysis of the channels through which these effects are likely to materialize over short- and long-term horizons and some policy implications, the note proposes potential adjustments to the design of the climate scenarios used by financial institutions, central banks, and financial sector supervisors and regulators within their risk management frameworks.
Source: imf.org
Middle Corridor* through Central Asia, Caucasus Can Boost Trade, Connectivity and Supply Chain Resilience, Says New Report
November 27, 2023-- With the right policies, the Middle Corridor linking Chinese and European markets via Central Asia and the Caucasus can invigorate regional trade and boost connectivity for countries along the route. The corridor can also provide resilience and route diversification for the China-Europe container trade, shielding countries and supply chains from geopolitical shocks, according to a new World Bank report released today.
The Middle Trade and Transport Corridor-Policies and Investments to Triple Freight Volumes and Halve Travel Time by 2030, which focuses on Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, identifies priority measures that can transform this multimodal rail and maritime corridor into a vital and dependable trade route.
The report notes that with the right investments and policies, the Middle Corridor could triple trade volumes while halving travel time along the route by 2030. This would benefit local and regional economies and broader communities, creating employment opportunities, spurring demand for supporting industries, and attracting businesses.
Source: worldbank.org
IMF Working Papers-Monetary Policy Design with Recurrent Climate Shocks
November 24, 2023--Summary:
As climate change intensifies, the frequency and severity of climate-induced disasters are expected to escalate. We develop a New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model to analyze the impact of these events on monetary policy. Our model conceptualizes these disasters as left-tail productivity shocks with a quantified likelihood, leading to a skewed distribution of outcomes.
This creates a significant trade-off for central banks, balancing increased inflation risks against reduced output.
Our results suggest modifying the Taylor rule to give equal weight to responses to both inflation and output growth, indicating a gradual approach to climate exacerbated economic fluctuations.
Source: imf.org
White-label ETF provider agreement highlights Europe challenges
November 21, 2023--HANetf and Tidal have agreed to collaborate so their respective clients can launch ETFs in the US and Europe
An innovative tie-up between Europe's dominant third-party exchange traded fund platform and a giant of the US market has been heralded as a breakthrough paving the way to greater choice for investors on both sides of the Atlantic.
However, the deal may also signal the difficulty of getting a so-called "white label" ETF business off the ground in a fragmented European market, with its multiplicity of countries, currencies, languages and regulatory regimes.
Source: ft.com
Central Bank Digital Currency Development Enters the Next Phase
November 20, 2023--Many of the world's monetary authorities are seeking more guidance on how best to pursue digital forms of central bank money
Central bank digital currencies can improve payment systems as well as financial inclusion-if they are appropriately designed. If not, they could pose risks.
While not all countries may see an immediate case to deploy a CBDC, many countries are exploring CBDCs so they will have the option to introduce one in the future if it becomes pertinent for them. Benefits are more likely to come in time, following the policies pursued by countries and the private sector's response, as well as the evolution of technology.
Source: imf.org
Central Bank Digital Currency Development Enters the Next Phase
November 20, 2023--Many of the world's monetary authorities are seeking more guidance on how best to pursue digital forms of central bank money
Central bank digital currencies can improve payment systems as well as financial inclusion-if they are appropriately designed. If not, they could pose risks.
While not all countries may see an immediate case to deploy a CBDC, many countries are exploring CBDCs so they will have the option to introduce one in the future if it becomes pertinent for them. Benefits are more likely to come in time, following the policies pursued by countries and the private sector's response, as well as the evolution of technology.
Source: imf.org
Is FinTech Eating the Bank's Lunch?
November 17, 2023--This paper examines how the growing presence of FinTech firms affects the performance of traditional financial institutions. The findings point to a negative impact on profitability, primarily due to a reduction in interest income and a rise in operational costs.
Although established financial institutions have tried to diversify their revenue streams, these efforts have proven inadequate to offset the losses associated with increased competition from FinTech firms.
Our study also reveals that various FinTech business models, such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending and Balance Sheet lending, have varying effects on financial institutions. Cooperative banks experience more significant profit deterioration under both models, whereas (larger) commercial banks appear to benefit from partnerships with P2P platforms, as evidenced by an increase in non-interest income. Furthermore, the findings suggest that FinTech presence has a disproportionately larger adverse effect on banks in countries with more competitive, profitable, and developed financial systems. Interestingly, however, traditional financial institutions in countries with stronger regulatory frameworks appear to benefit from the expanding influence of FinTech firms.
Source: imf.org
