Digital Payments and Business Resilience: Evidence in the Time of COVID-19

Youssouf Camara

No 9665, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers were encouraged to use contactless payments. An important policy question is whether merchants with contactless payment technology are more resilient to an external health shock than those without. Using a matched difference-in-differences setting on unique merchant card-sales transaction data, this study finds that merchants with contactless payment technology increase their card-sales amount (count) on average by 8.3 percent (10.2 percent) compared with merchants without this technology. It also finds evidence that accepting contactless payment during an epidemic shock helps merchants attract more new consumers. Digital payment technology continues to support sales growth, especially for small businesses and new entrepreneurs.

Keywords: Public Health Promotion; Health Care Services Industry; Financial Sector Policy; Information Security&Privacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-05-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-pay
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9665

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