The digital payment-financial inclusion nexus and payment system innovation within the global open economy during the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper retrospectively examines how the digital payment-financial inclusion nexus fostered demand-driven payment system innovation and diffusion within the global open economy during the COVID-19 crisis. To that end, the paper uses a cross-sectional sample of 127854 respondents from across 123 economies, extracted from the 2021 wave of the Global Findex Survey. Together with a hybrid theoretical framework that bridges the quadruple helix (QH) innovation model with random utility theory (RUT), the study characterizes individuals' stated preferences for cashless payment across the three consumption domains of in-store shopping, online shopping, and regular bills settlement. The parameters of the resulting econometric model are estimated within the R software version 3.6.3. The findings from all nine considered demand side financial inclusion indicators reveal that globally, during the crisis, formal financial inclusion had a significantly positive impact on the marginal utility, and thus likelihood that individuals use digital payment solutions (DPS) for in-store and online shopping experiences, as well as regular bills settlement. Additionally, DPS uptake for online shopping highlighted a significant gender-based gradient in favor of males. Moreover, higher education levels, labor market participation, rising income levels, reduced COVID-19 related financial worries, mobile phone ownership, and internet access, are all found to have positively contributed to individuals' DPS uptake likelihood during the crisis. Furthermore, a cross-country heterogeneity in individuals' cashless payment preferences remained persistent across the three consumption domains due to macroeconomic, regulatory, cultural, and digital infrastructural readiness differences between countries. Overall, the findings provide support for evidence-based decision making by all digital payment ecosystem stakeholders.