ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS (EFP) is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to publishing high-quality original research covering all fields within the disciplines of economics and finance. The journal engages with a broad spectrum of topics—from macroeconomic policy to microeconomic market behaviour, from financial risk management to economic development strategy, from theoretical modelling to empirical analysis—providing a serious and open scholarly platform for global economists, finance researchers, policy-makers, and industry practitioners.

The core conviction of EFP is “Responding to real-world economic and financial challenges through rigorous scholarship.” In an era of profound global readjustment, continuous evolution of financial systems, and deep reshaping of the economic landscape by climate change and digital technology, the complexity of economic and financial problems has increased unprecedentedly. We believe that addressing these challenges requires deep research that transcends disciplinary boundaries—requiring solid theoretical foundations and rigorous empirical methods, as well as keen insight into institutional change, historical context, and social consequences. The journal adopts a flexible publication policy that takes Open Access as the default model while allowing Non-Open Access publication under special circumstances, balancing the global free dissemination of scholarship with the specific needs of particular research contexts.

Publication Model and Open Access Statement

EFP operates a Hybrid Open Access Model, with the following specific policies:

Default Model: Full Open Access

In the vast majority of cases, EFP operates as a Diamond Open Access journal:

• Free for all readers: All articles published under the Open Access model are immediately, permanently, and unconditionally available to readers worldwide. No subscription, no registration, no paywalls. We believe that research findings on economic and financial problems should be freely accessible to scholars, policy-makers, financial practitioners, business managers, students, and the public worldwide, to enhance the scientific quality of economic decision-making and the robustness of financial systems.

• Zero or minimal cost for authors: EFP completely waives Article Processing Charges for papers recognised through peer review as being of exceptional scholarly quality, demonstrating outstanding originality and practical impact. For other Open Access papers, the journal charges only a minimal fee far below industry standards, solely to sustain basic operations. Authors from under-resourced regions and the Global South may apply for full or partial fee waivers.

• Open licensing: All Open Access articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). Authors retain copyright of their work and grant anyone the right to share, adapt, and reuse the material, provided appropriate credit is given, to maximise knowledge dissemination and practical translation in the fields of economics and finance.

Special Cases: Non-Open Access

In the following special circumstances, upon author request and with the approval of the editorial team, articles may be published under a Non-Open Access model:

• Funder mandates: Certain financial institution-funded research projects, government-commissioned studies, or collaborative commercial research impose specific confidentiality or access restrictions that conflict with the CC BY licence of full Open Access.

• Commercially sensitive information and intellectual property protection: Content involving undisclosed corporate financial data, proprietary financial models, trading strategy details, commercially valuable risk assessment methods, or patent-related materials, where full open dissemination could harm the legitimate interests of the relevant companies or research partners.

• Financial stability and data security considerations: Content involving systemic financial risk assessment, vulnerability analysis of specific institutions, or research findings that could be misread by markets, where full open dissemination could adversely affect financial stability.

• Authors’ specific publication needs: Authors may request Non-Open Access publication based on reasonable grounds such as career development, institutional evaluation requirements, or future publication plans.

• Legal and compliance requirements: Laws and regulations in certain countries or regions impose specific restrictions on the dissemination of research content involving financial regulation, listed company disclosure obligations, monetary policy sensitive information, or commercial contractual constraints.

Under the Non-Open Access model: articles will be published under traditional subscription or paid-access arrangements; copyright arrangements and licensing conditions will be negotiated separately with authors; the journal will clearly mark the access status in the article’s metadata to ensure full transparency. The proportion of Non-Open Access articles will be strictly controlled to ensure that the journal’s overall Open Access character is not diluted. The editorial team retains final decision-making authority over the approval of Non-Open Access publication, and this decision will not affect the academic standards of peer review.

Aims, Scope, and Core Areas

EFP is rooted in the rich scholarly traditions of economics and finance while actively responding to the new realities of profound transformation in the global economic landscape and the continuous evolution of financial systems. The journal’s fundamental position is that economic and financial research requires theoretical rigour, empirical reliability, and continuous dialogue with real-world problems. We reject the reduction of economics to abstract modelling divorced from institutional and historical context, just as we reject the limitation of financial research to the operational description of technical tools. EFP is committed to publishing research that is both academically rigorous and practically relevant, both disciplinarily deep and interdisciplinary in vision.

The journal covers all fields of economics and finance and especially welcomes high-quality submissions in the following areas:

Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy

• Theories of economic growth: from neoclassical to endogenous growth

• Business cycles, recessions, and the mechanisms of recovery

• Inflation, deflation, and price stability

• Monetary policy: objectives, instruments, and transmission mechanisms

• Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) and the future of the monetary system

• Fiscal policy, debt sustainability, and fiscal discipline

• Open-economy macroeconomics: exchange rates, balance of payments, and capital flows

• Macroeconomic expectations, uncertainty shocks, and policy communication

Microeconomics and Market Theory

• Consumer behaviour and demand theory

• Theory of the firm, production decisions, and cost structures

• Market structures: competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition

• Game theory and its economic applications

• Information economics: adverse selection, moral hazard, and signalling

• Mechanism design, auction theory, and market design

• Behavioural economics: bounded rationality, preference biases, and mental accounting

• Public goods, externalities, and market failures

Financial Economics and Asset Pricing

• Asset pricing theory: from CAPM to multi-factor models

• The Efficient Market Hypothesis and its challenges

• Behavioural finance: investor sentiment, overreaction, and market anomalies

• Fixed income securities, term structure of interest rates, and bond pricing

• Derivatives pricing: options, futures, and structured products

• Portfolio theory and risk management

• Market microstructure: liquidity, trading mechanisms, and price discovery

• Asset bubbles, financial fragility, and systemic risk

Corporate Finance and Governance

• Capital structure, financing decisions, and firm value

• Dividend policy, share repurchases, and profit distribution

• Corporate governance: boards of directors, managerial incentives, and shareholder rights

• Mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and the market for corporate control

• Corporate investment decisions and capital budgeting

• SME financing and financing constraints

• Corporate-level ESG integration and sustainable development financing

• Private equity, venture capital, and entrepreneurial finance

Banking and Financial Institutions

• Banking business models, profitability, and efficiency

• Bank regulation, capital adequacy, and the Basel framework

• Financial intermediation theory: banks as information producers and risk managers

• Shadow banking and non-bank financial intermediation

• The impact and integration of fintech on traditional banking

• Deposit insurance, lender of last resort, and the financial safety net

• Non-performing asset resolution, banking crises, and restructuring

• Inclusive finance, microfinance, and community finance

Financial Markets and Investment Management

• Stock market operations, valuation, and investment strategies

• Bond markets, money markets, and interest rate markets

• Foreign exchange markets, exchange rate determination, and international investment

• Commodity markets, energy finance, and resource pricing

• Real estate finance and asset bubbles

• Alternative investments: hedge funds, private equity funds, and real assets

• Passive investing, index funds, and factor investing

• Sustainable investment, impact investing, and ESG asset management

International Economics and Global Finance

• International trade theory: from comparative advantage to new-new trade theory

• Trade policy, tariffs, free trade areas, and economic integration

• Global value chains, international division of labour, and industrial relocation

• The international financial system: history and future of the international monetary system

• Exchange rate regime choice, currency crises, and capital controls

• Sovereign debt, international lending, and debt restructuring

• Global imbalances, capital flows, and financial contagion

• International economic organisations, regional cooperation, and global governance

Development Economics and Emerging Markets

• Comparative analysis of economic growth and development

• Poverty, inequality, and inclusive growth

• Financial development and deepening in emerging market economies

• Institutional quality, governance, and development performance

• Foreign direct investment, technology spillovers, and local industrial development

• Urbanisation, demographic transition, and economic development

• Development aid, South-South cooperation, and the global development agenda

• Debt problems and financial stability in developing countries

Labour Economics and Human Capital

• Labour markets: supply, demand, wages, and employment

• Human capital investment: education, training, and skills formation

• Income distribution, wage differentials, and labour market discrimination

• Unemployment, employment protection, and labour market policy

• Population ageing, retirement systems, and pension finance

• Migration, labour mobility, and economic impacts

• Platform economy, gig economy, and new labour relations

• Gender, race, and equality in the labour market

Public Economics and Social Security

• Tax theory, tax system design, and tax competition

• Public expenditure, fiscal decentralisation, and government efficiency

• Social security systems: pension, healthcare, and unemployment insurance

• Public debt management and fiscal sustainability

• Redistribution policy, the welfare state, and poverty reduction

• Financing and provision of public services such as education and healthcare

• Coordination of fiscal and financial policies

• Digital taxation, international tax reform, and tax avoidance governance

Environmental Economics and Climate Finance

• Carbon pricing: carbon taxes, carbon markets, and emissions trading

• Macroeconomic impacts of climate change and adaptation investment

• Green finance: green bonds, climate funds, and transition finance

• Valuation of natural capital and biodiversity finance

• Economics of the energy transition: renewables, energy storage, and grids

• Environmental regulation, green innovation, and competitiveness

• Climate risk management and financial stability

• Economic analysis of sustainable consumption and production

Econometrics and Quantitative Methods

• Time series analysis, panel data methods, and causal inference

• Machine learning, big data, and economic forecasting

• Bayesian methods in economics and finance

• Experimental economics, randomised controlled trials, and policy evaluation

• Financial econometrics: volatility modelling, value at risk, and extreme value theory

• Structural equation modelling, microeconometrics, and discrete choice models

• Network analysis and the measurement of systemic risk

• Reproducibility and data sharing in economic and financial research

History of Economic Thought and Theoretical Reflection

• The transition from classical political economy to the marginal revolution

• Keynes, Hayek, and the formation of modern macroeconomics

• Marxist economics and radical political economy

• Institutional economics, evolutionary economics, and economic sociology

• Philosophical foundations of economics: methodology, values, and ideology

• Non-Western economic thought and pluralist economic traditions

• The history, comparison, and theoretical reflection on economic crises

• Self-critique and paradigm debates in contemporary economics

Interdisciplinary Dialogue
EFP consistently welcomes boundary-crossing scholarship from mathematics, statistics, computer science, history, sociology, political science, law, psychology, geography, environmental science, management science, and related fields, provided it carries a clear connection to economic and financial problems.

Sections and Article Types

To foster a multi-dimensional space for scholarly dialogue, EFP maintains the following regular sections:

The journal especially welcomes proposals for Special Issues submitted jointly by scholars and policy-makers or financial practitioners. We encourage proposals that bring together deep, multi-perspectival discussion from multiple disciplines, methods, and regions around a pressing economic or financial problem or emerging trend, and we welcome guest-editing teams that include both researchers and practitioners to foster genuine interaction between theory and policy practice.

Editorial Policies and Peer Review

Editorial Structure

EFP is led by an Editor-in-Chief, supported by Regional Editors, Associate Editors, and an international Editorial Board whose members represent the full breadth of relevant specialisms, including macroeconomics, microeconomics, financial economics, corporate finance, banking, international finance, development economics, econometrics, history of economic thought, and public economics. The editorial team is committed to:

• Upholding the journal’s scholarly integrity and intellectual quality;

• Ensuring a fair, transparent, and efficient review process;

• Advancing the journal’s role as an open international forum for economic and financial research.

The composition of the Editorial Board reflects genuine diversity in geography, gender, intellectual tradition, disciplinary background, and career stage, to ensure that the journal broadly represents the plurality of voices in global economic and financial research.

Peer Review Process

EFP operates a double-anonymous review system: reviewers do not know authors’ identities, and authors do not know reviewers’ identities. This policy is designed to minimise biases related to prestige, institutional affiliation, gender, or nationality.

The standard process is as follows:

1. Initial Editorial Screening: All submissions are first assessed by the Editor-in-Chief or an Associate Editor for scholarly quality, originality, and fit. Manuscripts that are clearly unsuitable or have significant scholarly deficiencies are desk-rejected, usually within 1–2 weeks, with an explanatory note.

2. External Review: Manuscripts that pass initial screening are sent to 2–3 external reviewers with relevant expertise for double-anonymous evaluation. For manuscripts involving interdisciplinary intersections or policy-oriented research, editors will invite reviewers from different academic backgrounds or with practical experience.

3. Editorial Decision: Based on the reviewers’ reports and the journal’s overall standards, the editor makes a decision of “Accept,” “Minor Revision,” “Major Revision,” or “Reject,” and provides integrated constructive feedback.

4. Revision and Re-review: Revised manuscripts may be assessed directly by the editor or sent back to reviewers. EFP aims to notify authors of the final decision within 8–12 weeks of initial submission.

EFP does not accept simultaneous submissions. Allegations of research misconduct—including plagiarism, data fabrication, improper image manipulation, selective reporting of results, unethical authorship practices, undisclosed use of AI-generated content, and undisclosed conflicts of interest—are taken seriously and handled in accordance with the best-practice guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Conflict of Interest Statement

Given that economic and financial research frequently involves financial institution collaborations, corporate funding, policy consulting, or market participation, EFP specifically requires authors to fully disclose all relationships that may constitute conflicts of interest at the time of submission, including: financial institution or corporate funding, consulting relationships, employment relationships, equity holdings, board positions, government-commissioned projects, trading positions, or any relationship that could yield substantial economic benefit from the research conclusions. Editors and reviewers are also required to declare conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts and to recuse themselves where necessary. The journal is committed to maintaining the credibility of research through fully transparent conflict of interest management.

Author Rights and Responsibilities

Author Rights

• Copyright retention: Regardless of whether an article is published under the Open Access or Non-Open Access model, authors retain full copyright of their work. No exclusive copyright transfer is required.

• Open Access articles: Authors grant the journal the right to publish the work under the CC BY 4.0 licence, securing the widest possible attribution and reuse rights globally.

• Non-Open Access articles: Copyright arrangements and licensing conditions will be negotiated separately between the author and the journal, and specified in a written agreement before publication.

• Persistent identifiers: All published works, regardless of publication model, will be assigned permanent Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and disseminated across multiple indexing platforms to ensure visibility and longevity.

Author Responsibilities

Authors are expected to ensure that: the submission is original and previously unpublished; all named authors have made substantive contributions and approved the submission; all sources are accurately cited; data used in the research are authentic and reliable, with data sources, collection methods, and processing procedures clearly stated, particularly when involving financial market data, corporate financial data, macroeconomic statistics, or policy evaluation data; research involving human subjects (such as experimental economics studies or surveys) complies with relevant ethical standards and provides information on ethical review approval where applicable; all conflicts of interest have been truthfully disclosed; all use of AI tools has been truthfully declared; and no conduct violating academic integrity exists.