IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v34y2016i4p595-613.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Do Speed And Security Influence Consumers' Payment Behavior?

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Schuh
  • Joanna Stavins

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="coep12163-abs-0001"> The Federal Reserve named improvements in the speed and security of the payment system as two of its policy initiatives for 2012–2016. Using new data from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice (SCPC) and models from earlier research, we estimate how various aspects of speed and security influence consumers' decisions to adopt and use payment instruments. Some aspects of speed and security have a statistically significant influence on the adoption and use of selected payment instruments, but not as much as other characteristics of payment instruments. Using econometric models to simulate selected policies proposed by the Fed, we show that faster speed of payment deduction for Automatic Clearing House (ACH) transactions would slightly increase consumers' adoption of ACH-based payment methods, while enhanced security of payment cards would marginally increase the use of credit and debit cards. However, neither improvement is likely to increase consumer welfare much because consumer demand for payments is very inelastic with respect to speed and security. Our analysis focuses exclusively on consumers' behavior and does not include potential benefits of improvements to the payment system that would directly benefit businesses or financial institutions. In addition, preventing security breaches may preserve public confidence in the payment system, benefitting consumers even if they do not change their payment behavior. (JEL D12, D14, E58)

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Schuh & Joanna Stavins, 2016. "How Do Speed And Security Influence Consumers' Payment Behavior?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(4), pages 595-613, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:34:y:2016:i:4:p:595-613
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/coep.2016.34.issue-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ching, Andrew T. & Hayashi, Fumiko, 2010. "Payment card rewards programs and consumer payment choice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1773-1787, August.
    2. Schuh, Scott & Stavins, Joanna, 2010. "Why are (some) consumers (finally) writing fewer checks? The role of payment characteristics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1745-1758, August.
    3. Claire Greene & Marc Rysman & Scott Schuh & Oz Shy, 2014. "Costs and benefits of building faster payment systems: the U.K. experience and implications for the United States," Current Policy Perspectives 14-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Santiago Carbó‐Valverde & Pedro J. Cuadros‐Solas & Francisco Rodríguez‐Fernández & José Juan Sánchez‐Béjar, 2024. "Digital innovation and de‐branching in the banking industry: Customer perception and satisfaction," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(S1), pages 8-20, March.
    2. Fumiko Hayashi, 2015. "Faster payments in the United States: how can private sector systems achieve public policy goals?," Research Working Paper RWP 15-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    3. Cologgi, Massimiliano, 2023. "The impact of regulation on retail payments security: Evidence from Italian supervisory data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Greene, Claire & Cole, Allison, 2017. "Financial Inclusion and Consumer Payment Choice," Journal of Financial Transformation, Capco Institute, vol. 46, pages 219-235.
    5. Greene, Claire & Stavins, Joanna, 2017. "Did the Target data breach change consumer assessments of payment card security?," Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 11(2), pages 121-133, August.
    6. Carbó-Valverde, Santiago & Cuadros-Solas, Pedro J. & Rodríguez-Fernández, Francisco & Sánchez-Béjar, José Juan, 2023. "Mobility restrictions and payment choices: The case of the Covid-19 pandemic," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    7. Guerino Ardizzi & Andrea Nobili & Giorgia Rocco, 2020. "A game changer in payment habits: evidence from daily data during a pandemic," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 591, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    8. Semerikova, E., 2024. "Cashless payments beyond access: What influences the intensity of use?," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 171-188.
    9. Aloys Prinz, 2019. "The microeconomics of mobile payments," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 129-151, December.
    10. Sumit Agarwal & Pulak Ghosh & Tianyue Ruan & Yunqi Zhang, 2024. "Transient Customer Response to Data Breaches of Their Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(6), pages 4105-4114, June.
    11. Carin van der Cruijsen & Mirjam Plooij, 2018. "Drivers Of Payment Patterns At The Point Of Sale: Stable Or Not?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(2), pages 363-380, April.
    12. Carin van der Cruijsen, 2017. "Payments data: do consumers want to keep them in a safe or turn them into gold?," DNB Working Papers 563, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    13. Hartmann, Monika & Gijsel, Lola Hernandez-van & Plooij, Mirjam & Vandeweyer, Quentin, 2019. "Are instant payments becoming the new normal? A comparative study," Occasional Paper Series 229, European Central Bank.
    14. Tobias Trütsch, 2016. "The impact of mobile payment on payment choice," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 30(3), pages 299-336, August.
    15. Leo Van Hove & Farhod P. Karimov, 2016. "The role of risk in e-retailers’ adoption of payment methods: evidence for transition economies," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 27-72, March.
    16. Massimiliano Cologgi, 2023. "The security of retail payment instruments: evidence from supervisory data," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 30, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. Seitz, Franz & Krueger, Malte, 2017. "The Blessing of Cash," International Cash Conference 2017 – War on Cash: Is there a Future for Cash? 162911, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    18. Joanna Stavins, 2017. "How do consumers make their payment choices?," Research Data Report 17-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lola Hernandez & Nicole Jonker & Anneke Kosse, 2017. "Cash versus Debit Card: The Role of Budget Control," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 91-112, March.
    2. Sergei Koulayev & Marc Rysman & Scott Schuh & Joanna Stavins, 2016. "Explaining adoption and use of payment instruments by US consumers," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(2), pages 293-325, May.
    3. Joanna Stavins & Huijia Wu, 2017. "Payment discounts and surcharges: the role of consumer preferences," Working Papers 17-4, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    4. Ulf Von Kalckreuth & Tobias Schmidt & Helmut Stix, 2014. "Using Cash to Monitor Liquidity: Implications for Payments, Currency Demand, and Withdrawal Behavior," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(8), pages 1753-1786, December.
    5. Schuh, Scott & Stavins, Joanna, 2010. "Why are (some) consumers (finally) writing fewer checks? The role of payment characteristics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1745-1758, August.
    6. Tobias Trütsch, 2016. "The impact of mobile payment on payment choice," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 30(3), pages 299-336, August.
    7. John Bagnall & David Bounie & Kim P. Huynh & Anneke Kosse & Tobias Schmidt & Scott Schuh, 2016. "Consumer Cash Usage: A Cross-Country Comparison with Payment Diary Survey Data," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(4), pages 1-61, December.
    8. Stavins, Joanna & Shy, Oz, 2015. "Merchant steering of consumer payment choice: Evidence from a 2012 diary survey," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-9.
    9. Ann Shawing Yang, 2015. "Lottery Payment Cards: A Study of Mental Accounting," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 201-226, July.
    10. Laine, Liisa T. & Ma, Ching-to Albert, 2017. "Quality and competition between public and private firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 336-353.
    11. Carlos A. Arango-Arango & Héctor M. Zárate-Solano & Nicolás F. Suárez-Ariza, 2017. "Determinantes del Acceso, Uso y Aceptación de Pagos Electrónicos en Colombia," Borradores de Economia 999, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    12. Arango, Carlos & Huynh, Kim P. & Sabetti, Leonard, 2015. "Consumer payment choice: Merchant card acceptance versus pricing incentives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 130-141.
    13. Joanna Stavins, 2017. "How do consumers make their payment choices?," Research Data Report 17-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    14. Simon, John & Smith, Kylie & West, Tim, 2010. "Price incentives and consumer payment behaviour," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1759-1772, August.
    15. Scott Schuh & Joanna Stavins, 2013. "How Consumers Pay: Adoption and Use of Payments," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 2(2), pages 1-1, May.
    16. Naoki Wakamori & Angelika Welte, 2017. "Why Do Shoppers Use Cash? Evidence from Shopping Diary Data," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(1), pages 115-169, February.
    17. Tobias Truetsch, 2014. "The Impact of Contactless Payment on Spending," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 0702228, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    18. Tamás Briglevics & Oz Shy, 2014. "Why Don’t Most Merchants Use Price Discounts to Steer Consumer Payment Choice?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 44(4), pages 367-392, June.
    19. Arango, Carlos & Huynh, Kim P. & Sabetti, Leonard, 2011. "How do you pay? The role of incentives at the point-of-sale," Working Paper Series 1386, European Central Bank.
    20. Anneke Kosse & David-Jan Jansen, 2011. "Choosing how to pay: the influence of home country habits," DNB Working Papers 328, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:34:y:2016:i:4:p:595-613. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.