Národohospodářská fakulta Vysoké školy ekonomické v Praze, nám. Winstona Churchilla 4, 130 67 Praha 3 tel.: +420 224 095 521, fax: +420 224 221 718, URL: http://nf.vse.cz
REVIEW OF THE BACHERLOR THESIS OPPONENT
Student’s name and surname: Anirudh Srivastava Thesis title: Impact of Digital Payments on the economy Thesis opponent: Klára Čermáková
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Assessment of the main aspects of the thesis:
1 Structure of the thesis (logical and systematic construction) ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐
2 Goal of the thesis (unambiguity of formulation, adequacy) ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐
3 Quality of the theoretical part ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐
4 Quality of the application/analytical/empirical part ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐
5 Adequacy of the methods to the goal of the thesis ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐
6 Sources (topicality, relevance, frequency) ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐
7 Quality of conclusions, fulfillment of the goal of the thesis ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐
8 Formal aspects (formatting, stylistics, references) ☐ ☒ ☐ ☐
Verbal assessment (describe the strongest and weakest aspects of the thesis; especially in case of a low assessment 3-4, concrete reproaches need to be expressed):
The topic of this thesis is interesting and relevant. The aim of this thesis - to find digital payment impact on the economy – is rather vast, but the author dealt with this challenge well – the structure of the thesis is logical and methodological rigor is present.
The abstract provides and adequate summary of the thesis. The theoretical part provides a useful overview of the state of art and relevant literature is abundantly used. I appreciate that the author presents examples of cash-less projects and summarizes pros and cons of digital economy which is very useful to the reader as theoretical background of own analysis.
The analytical part is methodologically rigorous and narrowly proceeds to testing of the hypothesis proposed. Construction of the model, dataset and all variables are well explained. I appreciate a clear interpretation of own results as well as of possible limitations of the constructed model. Conclusions are relevant to the goal of the thesis, I appreciate their theoretical settlement. The value added of this thesis is obvious and consists not only in own analysis of effects of digital payments on economic growth in case of the Czech Republic, but above all in the ability of the author to interpret the results and generalize own findings and formulate relevant recommendations. I appreciate that the author draws further investigation challenges.
All parts of the thesis are compatible. Language is predominantly easy to understand, the text is interesting and clear, typos are very rare. However, the text in the Conclusion part should have been dealt with more care as the message of some parts is unclear.
Complex assessment (it is necessary to state whether the thesis complies with the Methodological guidelines of the Faculty of Economics, University of Economics, Prague as concerns the quality of the content, the extent and formal requirements and whether the thesis is being recommended to the defense or not; the thesis can also be nominated to a special award, etc. ):
The thesis complies with the Methodological guidelines of the Faculty of Economics, University of Economics, Prague as concerns the quality of the content, the extent and formal requirements and I recommend it for defence.
Questions to the defense:
1. The author lists the “anti – money laundering” effect as one of the advantages of digital payments and, at the same time, the cryptocurrency payments are (correctly) classified as digital payments. This is, however, in contradiction with the regulators’ point of view as regulators and lawyers are facing difficulties in identifying the criminals’ personality and the fact of crime commitment. Can you discuss your point of view?
Suggested grade: excellent
Date: Jan 10th, 2022 ...
Thesis opponent’s signature
Instructions to the reviewer: The reviewer needs to fill in the verbal assessment which is adequately informative with respect to the purpose of the defense.
Assessment scale: 1 = excellent, 2 = very good, 3 = good, 4 = failed.
