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Cash-Management in Times of Covid-19

Author

Listed:
  • Alvarez Fernando

    (University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637, USA)

  • Argente David

    (Pennsylvania State University, 403 Kern Building, University Park, PA 16801, USA)

Abstract

The incidence of COVID-19 has systematically decreased households’ use of cash as means of payment as well as the average size and frequency of cash withdrawals. We argue that the structure of Baumol–Tobin type inventory theoretical models and their extensions can be used to separate the confounding factors, such as the desired level of consumption and the choice of the fraction of consumption paid in cash, from the cash management behavior, i.e. the size and frequency of cash withdrawals. Using this insight we argue that the observed cash management is consistent with COVID-19 increasing the fixed cost of withdrawing cash. We use detailed data on ATM cash disbursements in Argentina, Chile, and the US to estimate how much the pandemic has changed the transaction cost of using cash. This estimation shows that if the intensity of the virus doubles in a county, cash transaction cost increases by approximately 2%. The results from Argentina, Chile, and the US are remarkably similar and robust to several forms of measurement error and endogeneity.

Suggested Citation

  • Alvarez Fernando & Argente David, 2022. "Cash-Management in Times of Covid-19," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 89-129, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejmac:v:22:y:2022:i:1:p:89-129:n:11
    DOI: 10.1515/bejm-2020-0269
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Francisco Salas-Molina & Juan A. Rodríguez-Aguilar & Montserrat Guillen, 2023. "A multidimensional review of the cash management problem," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-35, December.
    2. Brown, Martin & Hentschel, Nicole & Mettler, Hannes & Stix, Helmut, 2022. "The convenience of electronic payments and consumer cash demand," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 86-102.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; cash; means of payments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates
    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit

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