Edoardo Beretta

University of Lugano | USI · Institute of Economics (IdEP)

Our research hypothesis is that "circular" or "round" organizations (compared to flat ones) are particularly capable of enhancing corporate sustainability as well as flexibility and collaborative spirit (provided that a profound cultural change is effected). The starting point is that "in a circular organization [.. .] every person in a position of...

The present analysis related to social sustainability aims at evaluating and understanding how a “circular” or “round” organization such as the so-called Organiblò (i.e., a fusion of the terms “organigram” and the Italian word for “porthole”) functions. More precisely, the present article wants to raise awareness among companies that a profound cul...

Remote work has represented 'the' alternative to office work during the COVID-19 pandemic as it has (while enabling employees to fulfill tasks from home) prevented or broken contagion chains. Though not a new approach to work, the recent emphasis on telework has come with pleas to reduce the wages of remote workers. By means of a logical-analytical...

The global financial crisis (2008–2009) represents a notable example of a generally unpredicted crisis in economic history. Nevertheless, it presented features comparable to almost any previous (monetarily related) crisis episode. For instance, it was characterized by a “vicious cycle” made by over-issued money and/or over-granted loans nourishing...

Knowledge transfer, assimilation, transformation and exploitation significantly impact performing business activities, developing innovations and moving forward to new business models such as transferring to a circular economy. However, organizations' decisions or willingness to transition to a circular economy are very often also influenced by the...

Starting from Irving Fisher’s equation of exchange ( ) at the basis of the quantity theory of money, we analyze from a theoretical macroeconomic-monetary perspective whether the increase of monetary aggregates M1 and M2 might have affected general prices. Moreover, we investigate why monetary aggregates have evolved differently for COVID-19 than in...

Starting from Irving Fisher's equation of exchange (MV = PT) at the basis of the quantity theory of money and mainstream (macro)economics linking money (M) and its frequency of circulation (V) on the one hand to the general price level (P) and real goods and services exchanged (T) on the other, we analyze whether product returns by consumers (reach...

Our Letter centres around George J. Hall's and Thomas Sargent's article 'Three world wars: fiscal-monetary consequences' published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) in 2022 and representing a study of the US financing sources spanning over a century. We expand the analysis of the US financ...

Zusammenfassung Dieser Aufsatz liefert eine Erklärung, warum die seit 2022 andauernde Inflationswelle vorhersehbar war. Damit ergänzt er die Analyse einiger Ökonomen, die schon 2020/2021 vor dem Risiko einer Inflationsspirale warnten, als die meisten Wirtschaftsprognosen aufgrund der Coronapandemie noch lange stagnierende oder gar sinkende Preise e...

(Published in California Management Review Insights, the new online and freely accessible platform for the latest in management thinking. Link: https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2023/09/the-post-covid-19-job-market-ai-in-recruitment-and-career-guidance-services/) By increasing scale, efficiency, equity, personalization of recruitment/career guidance, AI ca...

The global financial crisis instigated a search for monetary alternatives to traditional banking institutions, speeding up the process of digitalization and financial innovation, spurring the development of cryptoassets. Cryptoassets generate valid concerns for monetary policymakers with regard to the potential negative impact on financial stabilit...

The global financial crisis instigated a search for monetary alternatives to traditional banking institutions, speeding up the process of digitalization and financial innovation, spurring the development of cryptoassets. Cryptoassets generate valid concerns for monetary policymakers with regard to the potential negative impact on financial stabilit...

18.30, 10 novembre 2022 — 20.30, 10 novembre 2022 Biblioteca cantonale, Bellinzona Il prossimo giovedì 10 novembre 2022 presso la Biblioteca cantonale di Bellinzona si terrà un incontro nell’ambito del ciclo “Il futuro digitale prossimo e venturo”, che vuole approfondire il tema della digitalizzazione del settore notarile, già trattato lo scorso 18...

Economic developments are often accompanied by narratives, which correspond to popular or generally understandable as well as easily reproducible descriptions, images and interpretations. In debates about European integration, the sovereign debt crisis, and solutions to the Corona crisis – the latter of which has rekindled concerns about the public...

Ökonomische Entwicklungen werden oft durch Narrative, d. h. populäre bzw. allgemein verständliche und leicht wiedergebbare Erzählungen, Bilder sowie Interpretationen, beeinflusst. In Debatten über europäische Integration, Staatsschuldenkrise und Lösungen zur Bewältigung der Coronakrise – letztere hat die Sorge um die öffentlichen Finanzen sparsamer...

The paper assesses whether Special Drawing Rights (SDR), namely international reserve assets and claims on freely useable currencies of its members created and allocated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are inflationary. This question has been already raised in the economic literature, but the paper does so by specifically analyzing its mo...

Il secondo appuntamento del ciclo «Codici e diritti», vuole offrire alcune riflessioni sui cambiamenti portati dalla digitalizzazione nei settori del notariato e della carta moneta. Se un tempo «carta canta(-va)», quasi fosse un essere vivente che tutelava i nostri diritti, oggi tale compito è affidato a bits e bytes.

Die Wirtschaftsgeschichte – egal, ob nah oder weit zurückliegend – lehrt, dass Krisenvorbeugung besser als -management ist, aber auch dass beide Mangelware sind.

Sharing economy brought changes both at the macroeconomic and the individual level. New models of consumption, such as the liquid one, are becoming very frequent, shaping countries’ productive systems and consumers’ habits. This paper—combining both theoretical approaches—aims at measuring the individual characteristics that induce consumers to pre...

The paper explores the role, evolution and ruling principles of the concept of “money” in the 21st Century. In this continuously evolving context, cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology are widely considered the most relevant monetary innovations of the last decades. By means of a macro-founded logical-analytical approach combined with statisti...

Gold has a far-reaching history of ‘safe haven’ or ‘anchor of stability’. However, the epitome of precious metals has recently deviated from its historical price trend. Fluctuations and volatility have increased too. We argue that gold is not subject to bubbles (due to its scarcity in nature), although its price is. By means of a logical-analytical...

Zusammenfassung Obwohl man im Zuge der COVID-19-Pandemie aufgrund des dramatischen Einbruchs aller Wirtschaftsprognosen weltweit bislang von rezessiv-deflationären Auswirkungen ausgegangen ist, lassen sich Inflationsrisiken keineswegs ausschließen. Welche Folgeeffekte kann die Kombination aus milliardenhohen Liquiditätsspritzen bei starkem Produkti...

Die Rückkehr zur „echten“ Normalität und inwieweit sich das im Jahr 2020 laut World Economic Outlook des IWF um -4,4 % zurückgehende globale BIP erholen wird, hängt von der Impfbereitschaft der Bevölkerung ab. Aber ist die bisherige Impfstrategie aus wirtschaftlicher Sicht wirklich kohärent?

Schuldendebatten prägen seit je die Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Auch in der Eurokrise ab 2010 sind Hochverschuldung von Staatsapparaten, aber selbst Schaffung von Eurobonds und deutsche Reparationszahlungen infolge des Zweiten Weltkriegs zum Thema emporgestiegen. Warum die gleiche Diatribe im Zuge der COVID-19-Pandemie in Gestalt von Coronabonds und Ent...

The article analyzes the unstable equilibrium between further developing national monetary systems by means of (private/public) digital currencies while maintaining financial stability as secured by “tangible” store of values like notes/coins. Which are those elements of innovation improving today’s payments system? And, at the same time, which mod...

By "hostility to cash" we refer to the recent trend of incentivizing individuals towards a (privately managed) digital payment system driven by banking and financial sectors and supported by Governments. COVID-19 has on the one hand boosted this movement, with false messages about banknotes spreading the virus as a new instrument of convincement. O...

Fiscal austerity has been one of the leading policy measures characterizing crisis management of the euro area since 2010. However, austerity is not a new economic approach, as the new book Austerity — by Alberto Alesina, Carlo Favero, and Francesco Giavazzi — indirectly demonstrates while assessing the effectiveness of tax increases and expenditur...

On the basis of the identity between each country’s global imports (commercial and financial) and exports (commercial and financial), which is one of the fundamental economic principles of the balance of payments, the paper highlights why and how the leading account of transactions from/to the rest of the world needs to be reformed. As a strategic...

Purpose The paper explores the precarious balance between modernizing monetary systems by means of digital currencies (either issued by the central bank itself or independently) and safeguarding financial stability as also ensured by tangible payment (and saving) instruments like paper money. Design/methodology/approach Which aspects of modern pay...

The paper makes an unprecedented claim by identifying a significant relationship between money's (immaterial and intrinsic‐worth‐detached) essence and the measurement of inflation rates, on the one hand, and bubbles and private/public indebtedness, on the other hand. The inflationary potential of cryptocurrencies—among others: xenocurrencies and sp...

This short article addresses several important (but less discussed) aspects of the introduction of central bank digital currency that give cause for concern, no matter whether such a currency is intended as a substitute or a complement to cash. It discusses potential effects, such as bank runs and capital flight, and analyzes possible interactions...

The paper aims at bridging the separation between business economics and economics, which should have been overcome at the latest since the global financial crisis from 2007 – 8. Why do firms exist? How do they create added-value? And who “truly” owns them? Providing answers to such fundamental questions from both economic perspectives is what is a...

On the basis of the identity between each country’s global imports and exports, which is one of the fundamental economic principles of the balance of payments, the paper highlights why the leading account of transactions from/to the rest of the world needs to be reformed. As a strategic goal, the balance of payments should finally move beyond its c...

For the first time after the Keynes-Ohlin-Rueff debate (1929) on German war reparations, this particular payment typology is rediscovered and compared to (net) interest payments on external debt? Which are the similarities? And which the differences?

Paul Davidson und die Reform der internationalen Währungsordnung: eine Argumentation nach der Finanzkrise von 2008.

Over time, the European Union’s financing system has attracted its fair share of harsh criticism. On the one hand, it is broadly agreed that the current collecting approach – relying on GNI-, VAT-based resources and other minor funding sources – is particularly complicated. Hence, communitarian policymakers have begun thinking of financing alternat...

Are cash payments, in any post-industrial economy, only a barbarous relic of the past? And should they be replaced by dematerialized payment methods? According to our analysis, cash represents a natural drive towards economic dynamism and growth. From a behavioural standpoint, resources hold in cash entail reassuring components, which have ancestra...

Dollar, Sucre und die Suche nach einer gerechten Weltwährungsordnung.

Schacht, Hjalmar Horace Greeley.

The paper questions whether cash payments, in any post-industrial economy, are merely a barbarous relic of the past and whether they should be replaced by dematerialized payment methods. Our analysis aims to demonstrate that, being faster and more ‘expendable’ than bank transfers, cheques and other forms of credit, liquid money represents a natural...

Wenn von Staatsverschuldung die Rede ist, haben viele nur die Schulden der öffentlichen Hand im Blick. Dass auch die in einigen Ländern gravierende Verschuldung des privaten Sektors eine gewichtige Rolle spielt, wird oft übersehen. Die Begriffe Staat, Nation und Land müssen zur zielgerichteten Bewältigung der Schuldenkrise in der Europäischen Währu...

The current economic and financial crisis (2008-2012), which continues to hit the headlines and to place the stability of the global monetary system in jeopardy, has furnished the economic theory with several new elements of knowledge. Undoubtedly, the European Monetary Union (EMU) and the sustainability of its exchange-rate regime are particularly...

Las uniones monetarias son regímenes cambiarios que tienen por objeto disminuir los costos de transacción y anular los riesgos de cambio infra-unión. A pesar de sus beneficios, este acuerdo de tipo de cambio está sujeto a una miríada de fallas y puntos débiles debido principalmente a su intrínseco «enfoque único». Tiempo atrás—y quizás también en u...

Zwischen Gesells IVA-Note und Keynes' Bancor-Plan.

Economic crises have become increasingly frequent, enduring and severe. Central bankers’ and economists’ focus has progressively moved from keywords like ‘inflation’ (70s and 80s of the last century) to ‘debt’, especially foreign indebtedness, which has emerged initially in the developing economies (Cline, 1984) and is nowadays plaguing the Eurozon...

What is stopping Governments from establishing a new economic order? What are the principal stages on the way to a truly international payment system? Would an international currency unit, to be issued by a "Central Bank of Central Banks", remove or cure many instances of disorders? Furthermore, what advice have Germanophone economists of the past...

In diesem Essay werden die Verbindungen zwischen globalen Unternehmen und der schon erkennbaren Tendenz erläutert, wirtschaftliche und politische Grenzen erneut aufleben zu lassen. Das explizite (oder auch nur implizite) Scheitern einer global strategy hat nämlich ein so genanntes revival of economic and political boundaries zur Folge: globale Unte...