The Covid-19 pandemic has been a shock to retail payment behaviour. How have the changes differed across countries? What do they imply for the future of cash and digital payments? We assemble a new "Future of Payments" database on retail payment behaviour for up to 95 countries over September...

This paper aims to ascertain the determinants by which individuals decide to use credit cards as a payment method rather than cash; that is, to understand changes in socioeconomic factors on the long-term use of alternatives to cash. Using the data from the waves (2002-2017) of the Spanish...

Payments are a key focus of central banks, as - together with the safe, efficient operation of the payments market - wide access to cash is fundamentally important for a healthy economy. In this study, three main research areas were investigated: 1. socioeconomic characteristics that can be...

We develop a general equilibrium model that highlights the trade-offs between physical and digital forms of retail central bank money. The key differences between cash and central bank digital currency (CBDC) include transaction efficiency, possibilities for tax evasion, and, potentially,...

The bulk of euro-denominated cash is held for store of value purposes, with such holdings sharply increasing in times of high economic uncertainty. We develop a Diamond and Dybvig model with public money as a store of value and heterogeneous beliefs about bank stability that accounts for this...

We analyze for the first time cash holdings of private households in all euro area countries from 2002 to 2019 within a panel cointegration framework. Besides the traditional determinants of cash demand like transactions balances and opportunity costs, we concentrate on cashless payments media...

The choice of the means of exchange is one of the critical decisions in mergers and acquisitions. Travel agencies and tour operating-industries compete in a volatile environment, and in addition to generating economies of scale, investments in the industry involve important sunk costs. This...

In this paper, we focus on the stabilizing role of cash from a society-wide perspective. Starting with conceptual remarks on the importance of money for the economy in general, special attention is paid to the unique characteristics of cash. As these become apparent especially during crisis...

Cash usage at the point-of-sale decreased perceptibly in the past years. This is mainly due to the ongoing trend towards digitalization, but there are also indications that consumers were somewhat pushed into cashless payments by government regulations and supply-side restrictions by commercial...

We study how firms adjust their financial positions around the times when they undertake lumpy adjustments in capital or employment. Using U.S. firm level data, we document systematic patterns of cash and debt financing around lumpy adjustment, remarkably similar across capital and employment....

In this paper, we analyze theoretically the coexistence of two means of payment, such as cash and digital or electronic payments, introducing some distortions in the payments markets to understand the widespread use of cash, specially in emerging countries. Lagos and Wright (2005) theoretical...

This paper investigates the effect of electronic payments technology on firms’ tax compliance in a large developing economy. We consider India’s demonetization policy which, by limiting the availability of cash, led to a large increase in the use of electronic forms of payments. Using...

Will the widespread use of cashless payments reduce the frequency of the use of cash payments? This question is important because the major costs of cash use are fixed costs that would only be reduced if the frequency of cash payments substantially decreased, and thus the extent of the reduction...

Cash use in most countries is falling slowly. On the margin, younger adults favor cash substitutes over cash. For older adults it is the reverse. Revealed preference tied to a changing population age structure seems to be the main influence on the demand for cash and why it is falling. Cash use...

We estimate the effect of Bitcoin ownership on the level of cash holdings of Canadian consumers. Bitcoin ownership positively correlates with cash holdings even after accounting for selection into ownership via a control function approach. On average, Bitcoin owners hold 83 percent (in 2018) to...

We provide an update on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic on the demand for cash and the use of methods of payment based on data from the Bank Note Distribution System and from consumer surveys conducted in April and August 2021. Our key findings are as follows: Cash in circulation remained high...

The use of paper instruments-cash and checks-has been declining in the United States, and consumers have been gradually replacing paper with cards and electronic payments. Stavins (2021) examines the evolution of payments from paper to cards and electronic payments, while Shy (2020) shows the...

Cash usage at the point-of-sale decreased perceptibly in the past years. This is mainly due to the ongoing trend towards digitalization, but there are also indications that consumers were somewhat pushed into cashless payments by government regulations and supply-side restrictions by commercial...

Computerization of social life enabled market participants to search for new forms of electronic payments. The share of cash in total payments is systematically decreasing, which poses the risk of being supplanted by other instruments, including cryptocurrencies. Central banks, therefore, faced...

Conditional Cash Transfers are increasingly used by development aid agencies to reduce the incentives for migration from low-income countries. The evidence to date suggests that such transfers typically increase the rate of migration when they are conditional on investment, such as investment in...

This paper investigates the effect of electronic payment technology on tax compliance in a large developing economy. We consider India's demonetization policy which, by limiting cash availability, led to a large increase in the use of electronic forms of payments. Using administrative data on...

We study how firms adjust their financial positions around the times when they undertake lumpy adjustments in capital or employment. Using U.S. firm level data, we document systematic patterns of cash and debt financing around lumpy adjustment, remarkably similar across capital and employment....

We provide an analysis of cash trends in Canada before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the pandemic period, we explore the implications on demand for, use of and access to cash. We find that cash demand has been strong pre-pandemic and increased sharply during the pandemic. While...

In this paper, we focus on the stabilizing role of cash from a society-wide perspective. Starting with conceptual remarks on the importance of money for the economy in general, special attention is paid to the unique characteristics of cash. As these become apparent especially during crisis...