Choosing and using payment instruments: evidence from German microdata

Ulf von Kalckreuth, Tobias Schmidt and Helmut Stix

No 1144, Working Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: Germans are still very fond of using cash. Of all direct payment transactions, cash accounts for an astounding 82% in terms of number, and for 58% in terms of value. With a new and unique dataset that combines transaction information with survey data on payment behaviour of German consumers, we shed light on how individuals choose payment instruments and why cash remains so important. We propose a two-stage empirical framework which jointly explains credit card ownership and the use of cash. Our results indicate that the pattern of cash usage is compatible with systematic economic decision making. Consumers decide upon the adoption of payment cards and then use available payment media according to their transaction and personal characteristics, the relative costs of cash and card usage, and their assessment of payment instruments JEL Classification: E41, E58, D12

Keywords: cash substitution; cash usage; credit cards; debit cards; payment behaviour; payment cards; payment innovation; payment instruments; survey data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-mkt and nep-net
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ecb.europa.eu//pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp1144.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Choosing and using payment instruments: evidence from German microdata (2014)
Working Paper: Choosing and using payment instruments: evidence from German microdata (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20091144

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from European Central Bank 60640 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Official Publications ().