Substitution of Noncash Payment Instruments for Cash in Europe

The substitution of noncash (check, giro, credit and debit card) payments for cash transactions is of interest for monetary policy and for determining central banks' future seigniorage revenue. We develop a novel method for approximating the share of cash transactions using public information on currency stocks, noncash payments, and card payment technology for 10 European countries. We also provide a forecast of future cash use by country. The trend in cash substitution across countries is quite similar, but the countries themselves are at significantly different stages in this process. The spread of debit and credit card payments has been the key factor behind the substitution away from cash as the use of electronic cash is still in its infancy.     

Consumers' Use of Debit Cards: Patterns, Preferences, and Price Response

Debit card use at the point of sale has grown dramatically in recent years in the United States and now exceeds the number of credit card transactions. However, many questions remain regarding patterns of debit card use, consumer preferences when using debit, and how consumers might respond to explicit pricing of card transactions. Using a new nationally representative consumer survey, this paper describes the current use of debit cards by U.S. consumers, including how demographics affect use. In addition, consumers' stated reasons for using debit cards are used to analyze how consumers substitute between debit and other payment instruments. We also examine the relationship between household financial conditions and payment choice. Finally, we use a key variable on bank-imposed transaction fees to analyze price sensitivity of card use, and find a 12% decline in overall use in reaction to a mean 1.8% fee charged on certain debit card transactions; we believe this represents the first microeconomic evidence in the United States on price sensitivity for a card payment at the point of sale.     

Incentives at the counter: An empirical analysis of surcharging card payments and payment behaviour in the Netherlands

In card payment systems, no-surcharge rules prohibit merchants from charging consumers extra for card payments. However, such rules are prohibited in the Netherlands. Dutch retailers are allowed to surcharge consumers for debit card use. This setting permits an empirical analysis of the impact of surcharging card payments on merchant acceptance and consumer payment choice. Based on consumer and retailer survey data, our analysis shows that surcharging steers consumers away from using debit cards towards cash. Half of the observed difference in debit card payment shares across retailers can be explained by this surcharge effect. Removing debit card surcharges may induce cost savings of more than EUR 50 million in the long run.     

Do newspaper articles on card fraud affect debit card usage?

This paper investigates the impact of newspaper articles about skimming fraud on debit card usage in the Netherlands using daily transaction data and daily newspaper announcements from January 1st 2005 to December 31st 2008. Key finding is that articles about skimming fraud significantly affect same day debit card usage. The direction and strength of the media effects strongly depend on the specific characteristics of the publications, such as type of fraud addressed and their position in the newspaper, but above all on the frequency with which they come out. The effects, however, are economically small compared to other factors, such as calendar and holiday effects, and do not sustain or accumulate in the long run. Yet, some first cost calculations demonstrate that the impact of media attention on total retail payments efficiency is not to be underestimated.     

移动支付对家庭货币需求的影响——来自中国家庭金融调查的微观证据

本文运用2017年中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据,基于鲍莫尔—托宾模型研究了移动支付对家庭货币需求的影响。为了克服移动支付的内生性,本文选取工具变量,用两阶段最小二乘法(2SLS)进行了估计。研究发现,相较于没有移动支付的家庭,拥有移动支付的家庭现金在金融资产的占比下降25%,对其他层次的货币需求也有显著的负向影响,表明移动支付的使用减少了家庭不同层次的货币需求。机制分析表明,交易成本变化是导致移动支付影响现金需求的重要渠道。进一步,本文用分位数回归发现,移动支付对预防性货币需求的影响大于交易性货币需求。移动支付对货币需求的影响在不同的年龄水平、教育水平、城乡地区、东中西部地区和不同城市之间也存在显著差异。本文的研究为理解中国家庭货币需求的变化提供了新的证据,可为相关政策的制定提供参考。     

Whither Loose Change? The Diminishing Demand for Small-Denomination Currency

While payment card usage has increased dramatically, the stock of outstanding currency has not declined as rapidly. We analyze changes in cash demand for 13 advanced economies from 1988 to 2003 by separating cash into three denomination categories to disentangle its store of wealth and payment functions. Defining denominations commonly dispensed by automated teller machines (ATMs) as the "medium" category, we show that demand for small-denomination currency decreases with greater debit card usage and with greater retail market consolidation. In contrast, the demand for high-denomination notes decreases when interest rates rise but is generally unaffected by changes in debit card usage.     

Did a Public Campaign Influence Debit Card Usage? Evidence from the Netherlands

Did consumers change their payment behaviour after being exposed to a public campaign that encouraged them to use their debit cards more often? We analysed the impact of such a campaign that started in 2007, using debit card transaction data between 2005 and 2013. The overall results show positive effects of the national campaign to promote debit card usage, both in the short and in the long run. The results suggest that high campaign intensity aimed at consumers had a positive impact, as did a focus on certain large retail chains. Interventions aimed at increasing debit card acceptance by retailers were effective to some extent. Providing information to retailers about the benefits of debit card acceptance led to higher card acceptance, but no proof was found for the effectiveness of financial incentives for retailers.     

Debit or credit?

Empirical consumer payment price sensitivity has implications for theory, optimal regulation of payment card networks, and business strategy. A critical margin is the price of a credit card charge. A revolver who did not pay her most recent balance in full pays interest; other credit card users do not. I find that revolvers are substantially less likely to incur credit card charges and substantially more likely to use a debit card, conditional on several proxies for transaction demand and tastes. Debit use also increases with credit limit constraints and decreases with credit card possession. Additional results suggest that debit is becoming a stronger substitute for credit over time.     

Efficiency Tests of the Foreign Currency Options Market

Based on a new options transactions data base from the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Foreign Currency Options Market, this paper examines the importance of the effect of nonsynchronous prices and transaction costs on the usual option market efficiency tests. The tests conducted are based on the transaction cost adjusted early exercise and put-call parity pricing boundaries applicable to the American foreign currency options market. The test results show that the put-call parity boundary tests are sensitive to both nonsynchronous prices and transaction costs. The early exercise boundary tests are sensitive to transaction costs but are not very sensitive to simultaneity of the option price and the underlying spot price. Under the no-transaction costs scenario, a large number of early exercise boundary violations is found even when simultaneous spot and option prices are used. These violations disappear when actual transaction costs are taken into account.     

The Total Cost of Transactions on the NYSE

This paper develops a measure of execution costs (market impact) of transactions on the NYSE. The measure is the volume-weighted average price over the trading day. It yields results that are less biased than measures that use single prices, such as closes. The paper then applies this measure to a data set containing more than 14,000 actual trades. We show that total transaction costs, commission plus market impact costs, average twenty-three basis points of principal value for our sample. Commission costs, averaging eighteen basis points, are considerably higher than execution costs, which average five basis points. They vary slightly across brokers and significantly across money managers. Though brokers do not incur consistently high or low transaction costs, money managers experience persistently high or lost costs. Finally, the paper explores the possible tradeoff between commission expenditures and market impact costs. Paying higher commissions does not yield commensurately lower execution costs, even after adjusting for trade difficulty. We cannot determine whether other valuable brokerage services are being purchased with higher commission payments or whether some money managers really are inefficient consumers of brokerage trading services.     

Debit Card Incentives and Consumer Behavior: Evidence Using Natural Experiment Methods

Journal of Financial Services Research - We estimate the effects of a debit card incentive program on consumer behavior using bank-recorded transaction micro data and a natural experiment design....     

Why Do Shoppers Use Cash? Evidence from Shopping Diary Data

Recent studies find that cash remains the dominant payment choice for small‐value transactions despite the prevalence of alternative payment methods such as debit and credit cards. An important policy question is whether consumers truly prefer using cash or merchants restrict card usage. Using unique shopping diary data, we estimate a payment choice model with individual heterogeneity, controlling for merchants' acceptance of cards. Based on a policy simulation imposing universal card acceptance among merchants, we find that overall cash usage would decrease by only 8.0 percentage points, implying that cash usage in small‐value transactions is driven mainly by consumer preferences.     

Sales Concessions in the US Housing Market

This article examines the use of concessions in the US housing market, specifically payments for closing costs, home warranties, and structural repairs. This is the first study to examine the motivations and characteristics of homeowners that utilize concessions. It also examines the impact concessions have on transaction prices and marketing durations. While the literature has attempted to determine if concessions can reduce marketing durations or increase transaction prices, the evidence is tainted by endogeneity and sample issues. Additionally, we find that relative bargaining power between buyers and sellers has a fundamental effect on how concessions alter prices and marketing durations. This aspect has been considered only narrowly in the extant literature. Our results demonstrate that when sellers have bargaining power, transactions including concessions exhibit higher prices and shorter marketing durations. Conversely, when buyers have greater negotiation leverage, transactions including concessions experience lower prices and longer marketing periods.     

Price incentives and consumer payment behaviour

In this paper we estimate the effect of particular price incentives on consumer payment patterns using transaction-level data. We find that participation in a loyalty program and access to an interest-free period tend to increase credit card use at the expense of alternative payment methods, such as debit cards and cash. Interestingly though, the pattern of substitution from cash and debit cards differs according to the price incentive. An implication of the findings is that the Reserve Bank reforms of the Australian payments system are likely to have influenced observed payment patterns.     

A note on the price- and cost structure of retail payment services in the Swedish banking sector 2002

We estimate private costs in the Swedish banking sector for the production of payment services and investigate to what extent the price structure reflects the estimated cost structure. We find that (i) banks tend to use two-part tariffs but (ii) variable costs are poorly reflected in transaction fees towards both consumers and corporate customers. (iii) There exist large cross subsidies between different payment services, foremost from acquiring card payments to cash distribution to the public, while payment services as a whole are not subsidized.     

Unshrouding: Evidence from Bank Overdrafts in Turkey

Lower prices produce higher demand… or do they? A bank's direct marketing to holders of “free” checking accounts shows that a large discount on 60% APR overdrafts reduces overdraft usage, especially when bundled with a discount on debit card or autodebit transactions. In contrast, messages mentioning overdraft availability without mentioning price increase usage. Neither change persists long after the messages stop. These results do not square easily with classical models of consumer choice and firm competition. Instead, they support behavioral models where consumers underestimate and are inattentive to overdraft costs, and firms respond by shrouding overdraft prices in equilibrium.     

EMPIRICAL TESTS OF THE EFFICIENCY OF THE CURRENCY OPTION MARKET

Tests of a hedge and a rational boundary of the efficiency of the currency option market are conducted in this study. These tests use transactions data and account for the effects of currency and option bid/ask spreads, synchronization of option prices and underlying exchange rates, market depth, execution lags, and transaction costs. Currency options, unlike domestic stock options, exhibit continuous dividends. The nature of the option and of the data set employed makes the immediate exercise lower bound test one of the purest tests of market efficiency to date. Results reported here indicate no ability to earn abnormal economic or riskless arbitrage profit for the period when these tests are conducted.     

Evidence on the Benefits of Alternative Mortgage Products

Alternative mortgage products have been identified by many as culprits in the financial crisis. However, because of their lower initial mortgage payments relative to loan amount, they may be a valuable tool for households that expect higher and more certain future labor income, and that wish to smooth consumption over the life‐cycle. Using U.K. household‐level panel data, this paper provides evidence in support of this hypothesis and highlights other important benefits of alternative mortgages, including portfolio diversification, tax benefits, and a reduction in the transaction costs incurred in housing transactions.     

The economics of credit cards,debit cards and ATMs: A survey and some new evidence

This paper provides a critical survey of the large and diffuse literature on credit cards, debit cards and ATMs. We argue that because there are still many outstanding issues and questions about the pricing, use and substitutability of these payment mechanisms, that there are significant further opportunities for research in these areas. A large number of questions are examined in this survey, including the pricing of credit cards, the impact of networks on the provision and pricing of ATMs, as well as the tradeoffs that consumers make between different types of payment mechanism, including debit cards, credit cards and ATMs. Importantly, this paper is also amongst the first to provide new evidence on this latter question from bank level data (from Spain). We conclude that point of sale (debit card) and ATM transactions are substitutes, and that ATM surcharges impacts point of sale volume significantly.     

中国央行数字货币的设计机制及潜在影响研究--基于央行数字货币专利申请的分析

本文基于央行数字货币专利申请信息和相关专家公开论述,系统分析了央行数字货币的设计演变、双层投放体系及其对金融体系、政策调控的潜在影响。研究认为,央行数字货币在中心化、双层投放体系设计下,定位于现金替代,对商业银行存款挤出及货币乘数影响较小。央行数字货币在保护用户隐私、提高监管能力、降低交易成本和简化跨境支付方面有着显著优势,对现有第三方支付业务产生替代效应。央行数字货币也会影响以支付为重要入口的金融科技业务和数字金融解决方案输出业务的发展,但若数字货币支付交易数据能够在保证安全和隐私的前提下,向金融科技企业和金融机构开放数据分析接口,则有利于打破数据孤岛,推动金融科技业务和金融数字化转型更好更快发展。