E-finance_Promises kept, promises unfulfilled, and implications for policy and research精选.pdfVIP

Final Draft E-FINANCE: PROMISES KEPT, PROMISES UNFULFILLED AND IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND RESEARCH by Anthony F. Herbst* * Dept. of Economics Finance / CBA The University of Texas at El Paso El Paso, TX 79968-0543 Tel. (915) 747-5245 Fax: (915) 833-4813 E-mail: aherbst@ E-FINANCE: PROMISES KEPT, PROMISES UNFULFILLED AND IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND RESEARCH ABSTRACT Growth of electronic, Internet based commerce, or e-commerce, has been truly explosive. However, innovations and growth of e-finance have lagged those of e-commerce in general. E-cash has stumbled along but not lived up to its early promise or its current potential. This paper discusses the current status of e-finance, some of the problems that have stood in the way of its growth and development, and implications for government policy and research. Lengthy, detailed discussion of such ancillary issues as encryption technology, e-cash algorithms and other technical detail at the micro level of implementation is avoided. E-finance . . . 2 E-FINANCE: PROMISES KEPT, PROMISES UNFULFILLED AND IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND RESEARCH E-finance, including e-cash, has not kept up with electronic commerce in general. The outstanding exception is in Internet stock brokerage business. The rapid growth in Web traffic to on-line brokerage firms from individuals has created periodic problems from overloading, with concomitant slowdowns and system outages.1