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The weaponisation of interdependence and ECB infrastructure : the digital euro, Pontes and Appia
As geopolitical tensions have intensified concerns about payment infrastructure dependencies, the European Central Bank (ECB) has accelerated work on two parallel initiatives: a retail Central Bank Digital Currency (rCBDC), the digital euro; and a...
This paper examines the firm-level determinants and financial consequences of cyberattacks using a dataset that combines survey data from the Bank of Italy with firm balance sheet information from Orbis (2014-2022). We employ panel logistic regression to identify ex-ante predictors of cyberattack exposure and a staggered difference-in-differences design to estimate their ex-post impact on firm performance and liquidity. Our results show that adopting digital technologies, particularly cloud computing and e-commerce platforms, significantly increases cyber risk, while firms integrating advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) alongside cloud services exhibit lower vulnerability. Ex-post analysis reveals that cyberattacks induce short-term liquidity shocks due to operational disruptions, with limited effects on long-term capital structure. These findings highlight the importance of liquidity buffers and cybersecurity preparedness in mitigating financial fallout. The study offers timely insights for corporate financial management and regulatory policy in an increasingly digital economy.