Call for Papers - 10th SUERF/UniCredit Foundation Research Prize: Crypto assets and decentralized finance

Motivation and content of submissions
This call for papers invites original research – theoretical or empirical, academic or policy-oriented – relating to the topic “Crypto assets and decentralized finance – what way forward? What implications for traditional finance? How to regulate and supervise?”.

Examples for research themes are the following.

Market evolution and structure
o How has the market for crypto assets and DeFi been evolving? What were driving factors? How might it evolve further?
o What are the implications of crypto and DeFi for traditional financial firms’ business models? Can both forms of finance coexist? Will traditional financial firms absorb new technologies? Or will the new forms of finance replace traditional financial intermediaries?
o What is the business model of key market participants in crypto asset markets and DeFi, how solid and sustainable is it?

Market participation: investors and intermediaries
o What motivates (or impedes) investors to engage in crypto asset markets and to use DeFi?
o What socioeconomic factors explain adoption by investors?
o Which types of retail investors adopt crypto currencies and how well informed are they about the risks involved? Which part of their savings are invested in crypto currencies?
o What motivates traditional financial firms to include crypto assets in their activities and product portfolio?

Price formation and volatility in crypto assets, market functioning
o What drives the price of crypto assets? How to reduce extreme price volatility?
o Crypto asset and DeFi market functioning and liquidity
o How to ensure the stability of crypto assets in relation to other assets and currencies, which mechanisms to devise, and how reliable can they be? What are the mechanisms used for stablecoins, and how reliable are they?
o What are strengths and weaknesses of existing governance schemes for stablecoins, and how might they be improved?

Financial stability, regulation and supervision
o What distinguishes traditional finance from crypto assets and DeFi conceptually? In what ways are they similar? In which ways are the risks from these markets different or analogous as compared to traditional finance?
o How to make the markets for crypto assets and DeFi more stable and resilient?
o Are the markets for crypto assets and DeFi fairly separate from traditional finance, implying little risk of contagion to other financial sectors and to the real economy? Or is such contagion feasible,through which channels and under which conditions? Is there a trend towards more integration between these spheres?
o In what way are problems such as fraud and abuse, runs, panics, and operational failure, which have been observed in traditional finance, also problems in crypto and DeFi? What are similarities and differences? What are lessons from cases of fraud and operational failure in crypto and DeFi markets so far?
o How should regulators and supervisors address risks from crypto assets and DeFi? How to assess the proposed European regulation? In what ways are options to intervene similar or different as compared to traditional finance? Where are the limits to self-regulation of crypto and DeFi?
o Do crypto investment and transactions raise new consumer protection issues that regulators need to address?

Crypto assets, DeFi and their wider implications
o How can the aims of allowing for financial innovation while ensuring financial stability and soundness, be optimally achieved?
o What wider implications may crypto assets and DeFI have for financial and monetary systems?
o How to reduce the energy intensity and carbon footprint of crypto assets?

This list is non-exhaustive, other contributions within the topic of the call for papers are welcome.

Formal Requirements and Procedure for Submissions
The SUERF/UniCredit Foundation Research Prize is open to authors and co-authors who are citizens or residents/students in the EEA, Switzerland, and other countries in which UniCredit is present (in addition to EEA countries, the latter also include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, Serbia) and born after 30 September 1982. Prizes of EUR 2,500 gross will be awarded to up to two outstanding papers on topics related to the call for papers. The winning authors agree to present their papers at a SUERF/UniCredit Foundation Conference to be held in Milano (or in a webinar/e-conference) in 1H 2023. Winning authors agree to provide a non-technical 2–5-page policy-oriented summary of their research findings for publication as a SUERF Policy Brief.

Applications should be submitted in English through the online submission form on the UniCredit Foundation website at https://www.unicreditgroup.eu/it/unicreditfoundation.html in PDF format by 31 October 2022. Applications should be accompanied by a brief curriculum vitae including the candidate’s/candidates’ date of birth and a copy of current identity documents that confirm the author’s/authors’ date(s) of birth and eligibility. The prize is open to papers that have been finalised within the last 12 months prior to the deadline for submissions. Full terms and conditions of entry can be downloaded from the SUERF and UniCredit Foundation websites.
https://www.suerf.org/UniCreditFoundationResearchPrize
https://www.unicreditgroup.eu/it/unicreditfoundation.html