Effect of COVID-19 on payment patterns: A policy perspective
Year: 2021
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: COVID-19 has affected almost every aspect of our daily lives including the way we pay. The pandemic caused a large drop in the use of cash triggering more contactless payments at the point of sale. The question comes up whether this change in payment usage is temporary or permanent. We use payment diary survey data to study the shift in payment behaviour and payment preferences. Since the start of the lockdown in the Netherlands the usage of debit card versus cash has increased by 10 percentage points. The initial drop in cash usage by 17 percentage points has only partly been reversed. The reversal occurred especially with people aged 65 and above as well as with people with a low-income. Thus the shift appears to be long-lived. Moreover, the pandemic has also resulted in a shift in payment preferences. People who used to prefer electronic payment have shifted to contactless payment. The percentage of people preferring cash only slightly decreased from 21% to 20%.
Institution: De Nederlandsche Bank
Language: English
Topic: COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3200577429