COVID-19 pandemic increases the divide between cash and cashless payment users in Europe

Radosław Kotkowski () and Michal Polasik

Economics Letters, 2021, vol. 209, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed an important aspect of everyday life, viz. how people make payments. The empirical study is based on a survey of over 5000 respondents from 22 European countries. It shows that consumers who had been making cashless payments prior to the outbreak of the pandemic have been even more likely to do so since it broke out. On the other hand, the consumers who had mostly been paying in cash have often continued to do so. The divide between those who pay in cash and those who do not, therefore, seems to have widened during the pandemic. It may suggest financial inclusion issues. Additionally, we found that the probability of more frequent cashless payments as a result of the pandemic differs considerably between countries and therefore indicate the role of country-specific factors.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Cash; Cashless payments; Change in payment behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E41 E42 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:209:y:2021:i:c:s016517652100416x

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110139

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