* Business Resources

Alternative assets such as fine art, wine, or diamonds have become popular investment vehicles in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Correlation with classical financial markets is typically low, such that diversification benefits arise for portfolio allocation and risk management. Cryptocurrencies share many alternative asset features, but are hampered by high volatility, sluggish commercial acceptance, and regulatory uncertainties. This collection of papers addresses alternative assets and cryptocurrencies from economic, financial, statistical, and technical points of view. It gives an overview of their current state and explores their properties and prospects using innovative approaches and methodologies.

This open access book tells the story of how Sweden is becoming a virtually cashless society. Its goal is to improve readers’ understanding of what is driving this transition, and of the factors that are fostering and hampering it. In doing so, the book covers the role of central banks, political factors, needs for innovation, and the stakeholders involved in developing a cashless ecosystem. Adopting a historical standpoint, and drawing on a unique dataset, it presents an academic perspective on Sweden’s leading role in this global trend. The global interest in the future of cash payments makes the Swedish case particularly interesting. As a country that is close to becoming a cashless economy, it offers a role model for many other countries to learn from - whether they want to stimulate or reduce the use of cash. This highly topical book will be of interest to politicians, researchers, businesses, financial service providers and payment service providers, as well as fintech start-ups, regulators and other authorities.

There is no denying the role of empirical research in finance and the remarkable progress of empirical techniques in this research field. This Special Issue focuses on the broad topic of "Empirical Finance" and includes novel empirical research associated with financial data. One example includes the application of novel empirical techniques, such as machine learning, data mining, wavelet transform, copula analysis, and TV-VAR, to financial data. The Special Issue includes contributions on empirical finance, such as algorithmic trading, market efficiency, market microstructure, portfolio theory and asset allocation, asset pricing models, liquidity risk premium, currency crisis, return predictability, and volatility modeling.

Sports economics is a relatively new field of research that is experiencing rapid growth in the economics literature. The importance of the sports industry to economies coupled with the availability of financial and productivity data have made the study of sports economics a useful avenue for exploring research questions that have eluded mainstream economics fields. The main goal of this Special Issue of the International Journal of Financial Studies is to encourage theoretical and applied research in sports economics, which is of interest to both academics and practitioners. For this purpose, this Special Issue on “Sports Finance” invites papers on topics, such as, but not limited to, salary determination, ticket pricing, revenue sharing, salary caps, competitive balance, new stadium financing, rival league behavior, determinants of revenue, television and media, tournament prize structures, financial distress in professional sports, financial fair play, financial control of sports clubs, Third Party Ownership, financial efficiency in professional sports, budget constrains and sport performance, financial information of sports, ownership of professional sport clubs and Crowdfunding in sports. Papers on both professional and amateur sports are welcome.