Arbeitspapier

The Pandemic, Cash and Retail Payment Behaviour: Insights from the Future of Payments Database

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 2019 to June 2022. We compare this with measures of the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, using variation in the timing of waves of cases, changes in mobility and lockdown measures across countries. We find that card-not-present payments, payment app downloads and the volume of cash in circulation all rose in weeks of more stringent lockdowns. Changes were less pronounced in countries with higher mobile penetration. However, recent data suggest that some effects reversed once lockdowns were eased, and mobility rebounded.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10258

Classification
Wirtschaft
Monetary Systems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System; Payment Systems
Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
Subject
retail payments
cash
Covid-19 pandemic
digital innovation

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Auer, Raphael
Cornelli, Giulio
Frost, Jon
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
(where)
Munich
(when)
2023

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Auer, Raphael
  • Cornelli, Giulio
  • Frost, Jon
  • Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)

Time of origin

  • 2023

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