Payments Innovation and the Use of Cash

16 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2013

See all articles by David S. Evans

David S. Evans

Market Platform Dynamics; Berkeley Research Group, LLC

Karen Webster

Market Platform Dynamics

Gloria Colgan

Market Platform Dynamics

Scott Murray

Market Platform Dynamics

Date Written: June 3, 2013

Abstract

Pundits have been predicting the death of cash for as long as the plastic card has been in existence – more than 60 years. This perception has been intensified of late by the rapid acceleration in payments innovation, driven in large part by the mobile phone, in both developed and developing markets. The authors assert that the existing ways of measuring cash are inadequate for measuring cash usage and have devised a new methodology and framework for measuring how much cash is used by consumers to pay for things at merchants. This paper provides an overview of this methodology by applying it to 10 countries: France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK, and US. The authors conclude that although payments innovation will impact the consumers’ use of cash, significant impacts will take at least a decade to be felt.

Keywords: cash, payments innovation, electronic payments, mobile payments, credit cards, payment cards

JEL Classification: E02, E40, E41, E42, E58, C82, D14

Suggested Citation

Evans, David S. and Webster, Karen and Colgan, Gloria and Murray, Scott, Payments Innovation and the Use of Cash (June 3, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2273216 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2273216

David S. Evans (Contact Author)

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Karen Webster

Market Platform Dynamics ( email )

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Gloria Colgan

Market Platform Dynamics ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.marketplatforms.com

Scott Murray

Market Platform Dynamics ( email )

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United States

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