Abstract-The latest impressive technological advancements in the telecommunications domain have entailed the involvement of new network operators andOver-the-Top (OTT) providers that offer their services over the existing networks. This entry of new stakeholders has changed the Internet dynamics and triggered a long-standing conversation on whether different types of data in the network should be prioritized, also known as the network neutrality debate. On the one hand, OTT providers benefit from the current neutral Internet policy of not discriminating against any application or content in order to transfer their data for free, whereas network providers would like to seize the business opportunity and create revenues by supporting the prioritized delivery of data. In this article, we want to shed some light on the emerging Internet ecosystem and the conflicting interests of its stakeholders. To that end, we first identify the different Internet players and describe their interrelationships. Furthermore, in an effort to offer a new perspective on the network neutrality debate, we propose two novel econometric models that employ recent financial data to capture the relationship between the OTT revenues and the financial gains and investments of the telecommunication operators. Our empirical results provide tangible answers to fundamental questions that had not been answered before, showcasing that OTT and telecommunication providers have aligned interests and their collaboration could be beneficial to both parties.

Over the last decades, both advanced and emerging economies have experienced astriking increase in the intra-financial activity across different asset classes and increasingly complex contract types, leading to a far more complex financial system. Until the 2007-2008 crisis, the increased financial intensity and complexity was believed beneficial in making the financial system more resilient and less vulnerable to shocks. However, in 2007-2008, the advanced economies suffered the biggest financial crisis since the 1930s, followed by a severe post-crisis recession, questioning the adequacy of traditional tools in predicting, explaining, and responding to periods of financial distress. In particular, the effect of complex interconnections among financial actors on financial stability has been widely acknowledged. A recent debate focused on the effects of unconventional policies aimed at achieving both price and financial stability. Among these unconventional policies, Quantitative Easing (QE, i.e., the large-scale asset purchase programme conducted by a central bank upon the creation of new money) has been recently implemented by the European Central Bank (ECB). In this context, two questions deserve more attention in the literature. First, to what extent, the resources provided to the banking system through QE are transmitted to the real economy. Second, to what extent, the QE may also alter the pattern of intra-financial exposures and what are the implications in terms of financial stability. Here, we address these two questions by developing a methodology to map the multilayer macro-network of financial exposures among institutional sectors across financial instruments (i.e., loans and deposits, debt securities, and equity), and we illustrate our approach on recently available data. We then test the effect of the implementation of ECB’s QE on the time evolution of the financial linkages in the multilayer macro-network of the euro area, as well as the effect on macroeconomic variables, such as consumption, investment, unemployment, growth, and inflation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s41109-018-0098-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Over the last decades, both advanced and emerging economies have experienced the emergence of the phenomenon known as financialization, that, until some time ago, was generally considered beneficial for the economy. The 2007-2008 crisis and the severe post-crisis recession called into question the assumptions underlying the positive perception of the role played by financialization in the economy. In particular, the effects of financialization on financial stability and inequality are now widely recognized. A recent debate focused on the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policy tools in transferring their effects on the financial sphere to the economic sphere (e.g., via stimulating the transmission of resources from the banking system to the real economy). Among these unconventional policy measures, Quantitative Easing (QE) has been recently implemented by the European Central Bank (ECB). In this context, two questions deserve more attention in the literature. First, to what extent QE may generate net flows of additional resources to the real economy. Second, to what extent QE may also alter the pattern of intra-financial exposures among financial actors and what are the implications in terms of financialization. Here, we address these two questions by mapping and analyzing the euro area multilayer macro-network of financial exposures among institutional sectors across financial instruments (i.e., loans, bonds, equity, and insurance and pension schemes) and we illustrate our approach on recently available data. We then test the effect of the implementation of ECB’s QE on some novel measures of financialization that we derive from the time evolution of the financial linkages in the multilayer macro-network of the euro area.