Carolina Mattsson: The Circulation of Digital Money

Date and Time: 11 January 2024, 10:30-12:00 (CET) 

Venue: Corvinus University, Building C, Room C.510 and online 

Language: English 

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Abstract: Circulation is the characteristic feature of successful currency systems, from community currencies to cryptocurrencies to national currencies. This talk will present a network approach to studying the circulation of money within such systems, touching on the data, the theory, and the tools. Modern payment infrastructure keeps digital transaction records that capture an ever greater share of circulation. A theory of walk processes on networks gives us a solid basis for representing such data, and lets us develop highly effective network analysis tools. We will discuss applied analyses of Sarafu, a digital community currency active in Kenya, and of a mobile money system elsewhere in Africa operating in the national currency. Several specific findings have concrete implications for humanitarian and development policy. More broadly, the ability to study the circulation of digital money in detail stands to accelerate our understanding of payment systems, the currency systems they comprise, the financial systems they underpin, and the economic systems they enable. 

Dr. Carolina Mattsson is a network scientist developing analysis tools and modelling frameworks for studying the economy as a complex system. She is a Researcher at CENTAI Institute doing work on production networks, payment systems, and temporal networks. Aspects of her research are explicitly policy- or industry- facing, having participated in projects with the Dutch Ministry of Economics Affairs, Statistics Netherlands, Telenor Research, IFC (World Bank), ING, and Intesa Sanpaolo. Carolina has a PhD in Network Science from the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University. During her PhD, she was supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and as a member of the Lazer Lab. Before joining CENTAI, Carolina was postdoctoral researcher in the Computational Network Science group at Leiden University. 

Your attendance in person or online is highly appreciated! 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at veronika.hamar@uni-corvinus.hu!