Browsing by Author "Young, Martin"

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Digital currency development and the impact of central bank digital currency on international and national settlement systems : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Manawatu Campus, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2025) Zeng, Linshan
This thesis consists of three essays on digital currency, with a particular focus on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). These essays progressively narrow in focus, starting with a broad overview of digital currency research, then moving to an empirical investigation of global CBDC practices, and finally, narrowing the scope to explore an in-depth case study of China's CBDC and its global implications. Essay one provides a comprehensive review of the evolution of digital currency, focusing on two primary categories: private sector digital currencies, represented by Bitcoin and Ethereum, and central bank digital currencies. This literature survey suggests that the future viability of private digital currencies is increasingly constrained by regulatory hurdles, market volatility, and their inadequacies as stable stores of value and mediums of exchange. Meanwhile, CBDCs are emerging as a predominant trend in the digital currency landscape, exhibiting broader application potential. By investigating the potential benefits and challenges associated with CBDCs, this study suggests that there is a critical need for global consensus and cooperation in the development and framework construction of digital currencies. Essay two assesses the potential influence of CBDCs development on currency’s invoicing capability in international trade. Based on the theories of firms' profit maximization, trade elasticity and sticky prices, this study constructs a model of currency invoicing power, including CBDC announcement year as the shock for moderating effect. Utilizing a sample of the top 50 countries, covering the period from 2005 to 2022, this study finds that the development signal of a country’s CBDC significantly strengthens the exchange rate pass-through, suggesting an enhanced II currency invoicing power, and this effect is even stronger in countries that have piloted CBDC programs. Mechanism analyses reveal that the currency invoicing power improved through reducing exchange rate volatility and increasing currency liquidity in international foreign exchange market. These effects make the currency a more attractive choice for international invoicing. Our research may provide insights for policymakers that promoting and accelerating the development of CBDCs can promote the use of national currencies in international trade, as well as improving national currency internationalization. Essay three examines the conditions and impediments for the implementation the digital Chinese currency (called e-CNY) in China, where a rapidly evolving digital payment landscape coexists with traditional currency transactions. Utilizing provinciallevel panel data from 2011 to 2021, this study analyzes the potential impacts of "Breadth of Digitization Coverage" and "Digitization Level" on the supply and demand dynamics of e-CNY within the framework of digitalization development. The findings reveal that an increase in digitization correlates with a reduction in the supply and demand for physical currency, indicating that digitalization has paved the way for adopting e-CNY. Further analyses reveal that the penetration of smartphones and the growth of e-commerce have been instrumental in broadening digitalization coverage and the level of digitization. The study foresees that despite the digitalization of wallets and payment scenarios has laid a solid foundation for implementing the e-CNY, establishing an efficient and secure e-CNY payment ecosystem will still require a development period of several years.
Income sufficiency in an aging population : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2022) Xu, Xiaobo
Using Household Economic Survey (HES) data in New Zealand and Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) data in 2018, retiree direct financial market participation proves to be an effective approach to improve retirees’ post-retirement financial wellbeing, shown in objective and subjective measurements. More specially, those retiree participants enjoy a higher annuitised net wealth and financial situation satisfaction in New Zealand, where universal superannuation is applied. Australian retiree participants have a higher replacement ratio and annuitised net wealth, along with a higher level of subjective financial situation satisfaction, and Australia uses the means-tested age pension system. Financial market participation strongly influences retiree income sufficiency in the objective and subjective measures in both universal and means-tested pension systems. Moreover, age, gender, partnership status, living area, eligibility for government pension, and employment status play certain roles in retiree post-retirement income sufficiency. Different methods, alternative calculations for income sufficiency, and alternative questions for subjective wellbeing results are all consistent with the main results. There is a clear policy implication for governments to encourage retiree financial market participation for better retirement life. The retiree’s income sufficiency gap is decomposed in Australia and New Zealand using the HILDA and HES datasets in 2018. The Oaxaca method decomposes different influences of demographic traits, individual financial positions, and unobserved factors on retirees’ income sufficiency in Australia and New Zealand with different pension systems. The results show that Australian retirees have a higher level of annuitised net wealth; New Zealand retirees have better life satisfaction. There is no significant difference in subjective financial situation satisfaction. Specifically, Australian retirees benefit more from individual financial positions, especially in homeownership, and New Zealand retirees enjoy better demographic traits, mainly self-rated health and unobserved variables. Relative income sufficiency comparison within each country and different distribution decomposition methods prove the same influence as the main result. The Australian government should improve retirees’ health status for better life satisfaction, while the New Zealand government should encourage homeownership for higher annuitised net wealth.
Perceived risk, risk tolerance and trust in debt decisions : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2020) Phung, Trang Thai Minh
The perceived risk of stock investment, risk tolerance and trust play important roles in the stock market and in use of debt for stock investment, yet the relationship between these has received little attention. This thesis examines these direct and indirect relationships using three independent essays using structural equation modelling as the main technique. Vietnam is used as an illustrative example, as the use of informal borrowing is common. This thesis surveyed 420 Vietnamese individual investors and found the following results. Essay One finds that the perceived risk is positively associated with borrowing sources and the use of informal debt. Leverage risk and opportunity risk also directly relate to borrowing sources. Borrowing sources is positively related to perceived risk and debt decisions. Perceived risk is a mediator between borrowing sources and informal debt, and borrowing sources act as a mediator between perceived risk and debt decisions. The results of Essay Two show that risk tolerance has a direct relationship to the use of financial leverage, while investment horizons are related to the use of informal debt. Risk tolerance positively relates to the use of informal debt and mediates between investment horizons and debt decisions among stockbrokers. In Essay Three, the results reveal that there is a significantly positive relationship between trust in the stock market, and trading frequency and the use of informal debt. Trust in stockbrokers and brokerage firms are directly related to the use of informal debt. Trading frequency is also positively associated with trust in the stock market and the use of financial leverage. Trust is a mediator between trading frequency and informal debt, and trading frequency acts as a mediator between trust and financial leverage. Findings from this thesis will help provide useful insights into investors’ behaviour and its impact on debt decisions for stock investment amongst individual investors, users and non-users of informal and formal borrowing, stockbrokers and non-stockbrokers, male and female investors in the Vietnam stock market and other stock markets.
Portfolio selection by homogeneous programming : a New Zealand case study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Economics
(Massey University, 1985) Young, Martin
For investment managers through to the individual the task of solving their particular portfolio problems remains a principal objective. It has been shown that an efficient portfolio can be specified in terms of its expected return and profit variance, (risk), that is the first two moments of the investor's subjective yield distribution. Selection of an efficient portfolio can always be achieved by quadratic or homogeneous programming. An integral part of the efficient portfolio selection process by homogeneous programming lies in the use of the truncated minimax criterion which gives a measure of risk preference, m. Varying m will give the complete set of efficient portfolios from all possible ones. This is detailed in chapter one where it is also shown that an optimal portfolio which allocates the budget with maximal caution can be selected from among the efficient ones under the additional criterion that the marginal value of the investment dollar is not exceeded by its marginal cost. Using a specified algorithm an optimal portfolio is selected from stocks qualifying as Trustee Investments under the Trustee Amendment Act 1974 listed on tho New Zealand Stock Exchange. Chapter two details the manner in which a five year data base of weekly observations, 1979 to 1983 inclusive, was developed for this operation and gives the preliminary results of expected return and profit variance for the stocks selected. A printout of the complete data file is included in the appendix. Chapter three of this thesis shows in detail the manner in which the algorithm is applied and gives a final result using weekly data over the four year period, 1980 - 1983 inclusive. The characteristics of this optimal portfolio are shown together with details of its performance over the twelve month period Jan - Dec 1984. Finally consideration is given to the robust nature of the portfolio selection system by looking both at a range of efficient portfolios selected from the four year data and also an optimal result from the full five year data.