Abstract This article focuses on the Network State movement as embodying the venture capital (VC) logic of exit. Exit constitutes both a strategy for lucrative returns and an ideology seeking out new territories for financial and technological speculation. This movement has emerged around Balaji Srinivasan and the technologies of Web3 that encode the imperatives of exit. In the construction of liberated zones for the Network State, VC operates through a territorial logic, under the leadership of the founderâphilosopher and with the affordances of the American state. These logics evince the discursive power at the heart of the political economy of VC. The desires of the VC class shape âfuture social necessityâ (Howard 2024; Finance and Society 10) and are âimprintedâ (Cooiman 2024; Environment and Planning A 56) upon the social and technological networks of the Network State. The valorisation through exit seeks to produce âhyperstitiousâ (Lynch and MuñozâViso 2023; Progress in Human Geography 48) value creation in which VC is the fount of civilisation.
The financial sector is undergoing rapid transformation due to digitalization, regulatory shifts, and changing societal expectations. Traditional banking models must evolve to integrate new technologies, alternative lending mechanisms, and sustainability-focused financial products. The transition towards a more inclusive, transparent, and resilient banking system requires enhanced risk assessment methodologies, decentralized finance solutions, and responsible credit policies. This chapter analyzes the future role of banks in fostering sustainable finance, managing systemic risks, and ensuring capital flows contribute to long-term economic stability and environmental resilience.
The logic of financial capital has become a dominant structuring force in global hegemony. Drawing on Giovanni Arrighi's theory of systemic cycles of accumulation, financial capital recurrently supersedes productive activities, reshaping global economic and political structures, particularly in the late stages of hegemonic cycles. Meanwhile, technological advancementsâespecially artificial intelligence, blockchain, and fintechâare often framed as potential disruptors of financial supremacy. Yet their development prompts critical questions: Can technologies achieve systemic autonomy, or will they remain subordinate to the imperatives of financial capital? This paper argues that technologization remains structurally embedded within financialized circuits of capital accumulation rather than achieving systemic independence. The rise of digital finance, venture capital, and high-frequency trading exemplifies how financial markets dictate the trajectory of technological development, prioritizing short-term financial gains over long-term productive innovation. Case studies from fintech and blockchain demonstrate that emerging technologies, rather than decentralizing power, are often co-opted into speculative financial markets, thereby reinforcing existing economic asymmetries. By emphasizing the structural constraints that prevent technologization from supplanting financialization as the primary driver of global economic governance, this study contributes to ongoing debates on the relationship between financial and technological power. The findings suggest that overcoming financial hegemony requires more than technological advancementâit necessitates structural transformations in economic governance, alternative models of innovation, and democratized control over technological development. Future research should explore potential pathways for breaking the financialized grip on technologization, with particular focus on cooperative economic structures, state-led innovation, and alternative financial models that prioritize equitable and sustainable development.
This paper considers a highly peculiar monetary development in contemporary capitalism, namely, money taking a concrete form but without having an adequate social substance, and moreover, the required substance failing to take a concrete form into money. By comparing Bitcoin and the REC, a politically committed local currency introduced in Barcelona, it asks how monetary forms emerge, stabilize, or dissolve under capitalist conditions. It also asks whether emancipatory alternatives to regular money can succeed without replicating the alienated logic of value projection. The key question it poses is: why did the REC fail to achieve scale, while Bitcoinâa project rooted in anarchocapitalist ideologyâachieved global traction? The answer requires a framework grounded in Marxist political economy, focused on the directionality of value projection, institutional memory, and habit formation. The REC relied on planning and participatory governance but lacked the structural solidity that could lead to sustained user convergence. Bitcoin installed itself through protocol, ideology, speculation, and repetition, thus acquiring monetary status through practice rather than conscious deliberation. The contrast makes clear the limits of radical monetary alternatives, and the strategic conditions required for their transformation.
Abstract This chapter compares tax policies of Canada with other advanced democracies. It starts by establishing the facts about tax policies in Canada at the federal level, which are characterized by an equilibrium of relatively low tax with a high degree of tax progressivity. Then, the chapter explains the size and shape of taxation in Canada by presenting three complementary perspectives. It presents a functionalist perspective focusing on revenue needs, a distributional perspective highlighting the role of Canadaâs majoritarian electoral system and system of interest group representation and the sectoral perspective focusing on the countryâs growth model. The last section explains the role of federalism in shaping Canadaâs tax policies and stresses interprovincial differences in tax policy choices. Overall, this chapter contributes to our understanding of the political economy of the financing of social policy in the context of a decentralized federation.
Cryptocurrencies are oftentimes cast as future-oriented technological innovations that decentralize money, thereby liberating it from centralized governance and the political tentacles of The State; more specifically, as a trustless substructure, Bitcoin endeavors to operate irrespective of any social institutions. The protocols underpinning the platform are embedded directly into the network protocol, coupling the Bitcoin community towards technological determinism, a spell wherein technological artifacts can rudder both culture and society without the necessity of any political intermediation, whether by The State or Central Bank.Blockchain has focused too narrowly on providing a technological solution to the issue of scarcity and solving the double-spending problem. Problems involved in monetary and payment systems provide for a broad range of mechanisms supporting the circulation of money, which must be backed by the state for the scale and complexity of a modern economy. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are better perceived as a technological innovation that does not remove money from politics but rather is part of a struggle over the political status of money in an age of financialization. Money is a hybrid public-private institution, and technology alone cannot render the role of state institutions in monetary and payment systems obsolete.
This paper explores the intersection of cryptocurrency, macroeconomics, and U.S. financial hegemony in the emerging era of digital money. It argues that USD-backed stablecoinsâsuch as Circleâs USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT)âoffer a new digital mechanism through which the United States can extend the global dominance of the U.S. dollar. Drawing from economic history, international relations theory, and decentralized finance (DeFi) innovations, the analysis situates stablecoins within a broader strategy of digital statecraft. The paper compares dollar-based crypto adoption with competing central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives, such as Chinaâs digital yuan and the BRICS currency proposals, assessing their geopolitical and macroeconomic implications. Key themes include de-dollarization, programmable money, financial inclusion, and the role of digital currencies in shaping future capital flows and trade dynamics. The findings suggest that stablecoins not only replicate the traditional advantages of dollar dominance in global trade and reserves, but may also amplify them through blockchain efficiency and global reachâpotentially consolidating U.S. monetary power in a multipolar world. Policy recommendations are offered for U.S. regulators to support strategic adoption of regulated stablecoins as tools of financial diplomacy and global economic leadership.
This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) research, focusing on adoption, digital transformation, and sustainability within urban contexts. Utilizing a dataset of 284 publications from 2016 to 2025 compiled from the Scopus database, the analysis employs advanced bibliometric techniques and network visualization tools to reveal collaborative patterns, thematic clusters, and research evolution. Results demonstrate significant scholarly emphasis on technological innovation and adoption factors shaping DeFiâs integration into urban financial ecosystems, alongside an increasing focus on sustainability. A regression-based Bibliometric Influence Score (BIS) adjusts for publication age and journal prestige, indicating that leading publications consistently exceed expected citation influence. Additionally, a conceptual framework is proposed linking digital financial literacy and sustainability outcomes, moderated by urban contextual factors. The findings underscore the importance of enhancing digital capabilities and mitigating systemic barriers to facilitate sustainable DeFi adoption in rapidly urbanizing regions, providing valuable insights for academia, policymakers, and practitioners engaged in fostering inclusive and resilient digital finance ecosystems.
Imagine being able to lend and earn interest without ever having to talk to a bank. That's the vision of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), a fast-growing area of finance that is built on blockchain and smart contracts. This paper discusses how lending sites like Aave, Compound, and MakerDAO work, and why clients from ordinary savers looking for high returns to institutions seeking clout are joining. We delve into the technology behind smart contracts, how they deal with risk using over-collateralization, and what motivates people to lend or borrow under this trustless system. But DeFi is not just a tech story-it's social too. It has the potential to disrupt traditional finance, open up access in underserved communities, and put a strain on global regulatory systems. But challenges of scalability, security, and restricting usage to crypto holders only also raise underlying questions. Drawing on a mix of on-chain data and user case studies, this paper further applies resilience theory to discover how DeFi responds to economic shocks compared to traditional banks. By doing so, it fills a key research gap in terms of the long-term economic contribution of DeFi. We offer policy proposals like undercollateralized lending programs and single point regulation, and argue that DeFi, if carefully constructed, can support goals like decent work and economic growth (UN SDG 8). There needs to be future work on what drives take-up and how DeFi could scale across blockchains and geographies to realize its potential.
Urban inequality and the financialization of housing call for a reconsideration of centralized municipal finance. This study introduces Decentralized Behavioral Finance (DBF), a framework integrating behavioral economics, blockchain infrastructures, and participatory governance to realign individual incentives with collective urban outcomes. Grounded in Sen's capability approach, Nash equilibrium theory, and libertarian paternalism, DBF links tokenization and behavioral design to accessibility, capital efficiency, and cooperative stability. Using longitudinal data for Spain (2000â2024) and evidence from tokenized housing initiatives, the analysis shows that citizen participation and technological adoption are positively associated with governance stability and social housing outcomes, while capital concentration exhibits a negative relationship with stability. The paper advances a formal Cooperative Stability Condition, expressed as a structural inequality, under which decentralized governance remains stable when participation amplified by technological enforcement outweighs concentration pressures. By introducing a testable equilibrium condition rather than a descriptive governance model, the study offers an internationally transferable framework for participatory urban finance focused on transparency, inclusion, and institutional resilience. âą Introduces a formal Cooperative Stability Condition for urban governance âą Integrates behavioral economics and blockchain in municipal finance âą Shows participation Ă technology offsets capital concentration âą Provides longitudinal evidence (Spain, 2000â2024) âą Proposes a transferable equilibrium framework for cities
Abstract Decentralized implementation of meansâtested social assistance programs requires significant organizational capacity among local governments. For other types of local public service, like refuse collection and utilities provision, interâmunicipal cooperation has proven capable of reducing the cost of subnational policy implementation, especially for smaller municipalities. But few impact evaluations test whether the same benefits can be achieved for less capitalâintensive and more coâproduced services, like social assistance. Moreover, most evaluations focus on production costs alone, despite the potential tradeâoff with service quality. We analyze panel data describing both the cost and quality of housing allowance administration for 314 local authorities in England between 2009 and 2019, during which time 80 switched from autonomous services to interâmunicipal cooperation. Using coarsened exact matching and stacked differenceâinâdifferences, we find no evidence of shortâterm savings after cooperation, and only weak indications thereafter. We also observe declining processing speeds, increased maladministration, and signs of reduced payment accuracy, though mostly these are temporary effects. Altogether, these results suggest that, in this setting, interâmunicipal cooperation may be unsuited to laborâintensive public services; that shortâ and longâterm effects can differ; and that, even in the absence of a profit motive, quality shading remains a risk in cooperation reforms.
Ethereum, as a representative of Web3, adopts a novel framework called Proposer Builder Separation (PBS) to prevent the centralization of block profits in the hands of institutional Ethereum stakers. Introducing builders to generate blocks based on public transactions, PBS aims to ensure that block profits are distributed among all stakers. Through the auction among builders, only one will win the block in each slot. Ideally, the equilibrium strategy of builders under public information would lead them to bid all block profits. However, builders are now capable of extracting profits from private order flows. In this paper, we explore the effect of PBS with private order flows. Specifically, we propose the asymmetry auction model of MEV-Boost auction. Moreover, we conduct empirical study on Ethereum blocks from January 2023 to May 2024. Our analysis indicates that private order flows contribute to 54.59% of the block value, indicating that different builders will build blocks with different valuations. Interestingly, we find that builders with more private order flows (i.e., higher block valuations) are more likely to win the block, while retain larger proportion of profits. In return, such builders will further attract more private order flows, resulting in a monopolistic market gradually. Our findings reveal that PBS in current stage is unable to balance the profit distribution, which just transits the centralization of block profits from institutional stakers to the monopolistic builder.
Dr Heena Dhingra -, Dr Anant Deshmukh -, Ashish V. Mundafale
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the critical goals for every country in the world. A stable global financial system is needed these days to satisfy its duty to boost private capital mobilization to achieve sustainable development and steady economic growth. However, several obstacles limiting such financial mobilization have been identified by scholars, practitioners, and standard setters. In recent times digital transformation and advancement, specifically in the finance sector, include a wide range of technological developments, and applications such as blockchain, the Internet of things, big data, and artificial intelligence are promised to enhance performance in the financial sector. The potential of digital applications in the finance sector to resolve critical obstacles in financing for inclusive and sustainable growth becomes evident. Financial inclusion is indisputably one of the most significant processes towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and FinTech is one of the best methods for these goals to be accomplished. The Fintech industry in India is rapidly expanding and the purpose of this paper is to discuss issues such as fintech drivers, shortcomings of traditional financial services, and the role of technological advancement. The paper also addresses issues relating to fintech investment and disturbance. Financial technology faces challenges such as investment management, customer management, and regulation. The paper examines the evolution of fintech in the banking sector over time. But as we are aware a country like India lacks proper infrastructure and management and the objectives of banking canât not be attained easily. All the issues and challenges faced by the government and financial institutions have been discussed in this paper along with the important and different strategies adopted by them. The study is based on secondary data and a literature review. India has surpassed the global fintech adoption rate to promote financial transactions with the help of technology. Demonetisation and implementation of the GST (goods and services tax) have also played a major role in the adoption of financial technologies among the masses. Also, the announcement made by the government in 2017 to decrease the amount of paper currency in circulation has elevated its awareness. Blockchain is another financial technology that is being used in the industry. Out of the total âfintechâ technologies, blockchain was developed for finance which is directly connected to financial institutions. The main aim of Blockchain in financial services is decentralization where we do not trust a third party to execute transactions. It includes services such as transferring funds between banks and companies. While trading in capital markets, innovative electronic trading platforms facilitate online trade and real-time transfers. Trading networks allow investors to observe the trading behavior of their peers and expert traders and to follow their investment strategies on currency exchange and capital markets. These platforms require either very little or no knowledge about financial markets. An automated financial advisor provides financial advice or online investment management with moderate minimal human intervention.
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Abstract The last century was marked by a remarkable improvement in the economic position of women, as reflected in higher labor force participation and wages. This paper extends the Hybrid Tiebout models of residential choice to allow for two-worker households. Our model incorporates both residential choice and labor market choices of households simultaneously and, thus, gives us a unique opportunity to study the impact of changes in the labor market conditions for workers on residential segregation. We develop a general equilibrium model of residential choice with decentralized workplaces in which households face a trade-off among accessibility, space and a public good (education). Education is financed through property taxes, which are determined by majority voting. The quality of education is determined by the spending and the peer group effects. The model is interesting in the sense that (i) households consider the work locations of both male and female working members of the household while making residential choice decisions; (ii) the presence of decentralized workplaces offers an alternative job location to workers; and (iii) the endogenous labor supply decisions for workers. We find that the increase in educational attainment for women and the changes in wages for men and women have had a substantial impact on the spatial distribution of households across metropolitan areas and hence, segregation by income.