How economic freedom reflects on the Bitcoin transaction network

Piergiorgio Ricci ()
Additional contact information
Piergiorgio Ricci: Università degli studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”

Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, 2020, vol. 47, issue 1, No 6, 133-161

Abstract: Abstract Based on the assumption that economic freedom facilitates the growth of traditional economic sectors, this study seeks to understand the role it plays in fintech sector. For this purpose, by adopting the social network analysis methodological approach, it considers the geographical network of Bitcoin transactions as a proxy to measure the national level of fintech development and compares it with a set of economic freedom indicators related to the top 70 world economies. The analysis revealed significant relationships between the performed network centrality measures and national levels of economic freedom. In particular, as confirmed by the implemented multilevel regression models, high levels of freedom to trade internationally combined with a restrained value of inflation and low administrative requirements can be considered as determining factors for fintech development. The study also showed a large number of Bitcoin transactions conducted in those countries characterized by fewer capital controls and restrictions, a result that feeds suspicions of illegal behavior, such as money laundering or terrorism financing, carried out through the use of cryptocurrencies. Findings of this research might be strategic for fintech entrepreneurship and policymakers interested in designing policies that aim to foster innovative sectors while ensuring the legality of financial flows.

Keywords: Bitcoin; Blockchain; Cryptocurrencies; Social network analysis; Fintech (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L26 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40812-019-00143-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:epolin:v:47:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s40812-019-00143-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40812

DOI: 10.1007/s40812-019-00143-9

Access Statistics for this article

Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics is currently edited by C. Cambini, M.G. Colombo, L. Piscitello, L. Rondi and A. Zanfei

More articles in Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics from Springer, Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().