IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mos/moswps/2020-07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Consumer Payment Choice and the Heterogeneous Impact of India’s Demonetization

Author

Listed:
  • Ayushi Bajaj
  • Nikhil Damodaran

Abstract

Consumer payment choice is based on heterogeneous preferences, availability, usage costs, and effective taxes. We examine the consequences of this choice on consump-tion distribution, aggregate output, welfare and the shadow economy. We employ this framework to analyze India’s unexpected demonetization of 86% of its currency in circulation. We find that this shock to liquidity led to an immediate and temporary fall in aggregate output and welfare. Further, it led to disparate distributional effects as not all consumers could switch to non-cash payments. Using consumption distribu-tion data, we find the lower and middle deciles in rural areas were disproportionately affected.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayushi Bajaj & Nikhil Damodaran, 2020. "Consumer Payment Choice and the Heterogeneous Impact of India’s Demonetization," Monash Economics Working Papers 07-20, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2020-07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/2252795/07-20-Consumer-payment-choice-and-demonetizationedited-final.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karmakar, Sudipto & Narayanan, Abhinav, 2020. "Do households care about cash? Exploring the heterogeneous effects of India's demonetization," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Yiting Li, 2011. "Currency and Checking Deposits as Means of Payment," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(2), pages 403-417, April.
    3. Ricardo Lagos & Randall Wright, 2005. "A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(3), pages 463-484, June.
    4. Gomis-Porqueras, Pedro & Peralta-Alva, Adrian & Waller, Christopher, 2014. "The shadow economy as an equilibrium outcome," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-19.
    5. Yiting Li & Guillaume Rocheteau & Pierre-Olivier Weill, 2012. "Liquidity and the Threat of Fraudulent Assets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(5), pages 000.
    6. Manjong Lee & Neil Wallace & Tao Zhu, 2005. "Modeling Denomination Structures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(3), pages 949-960, May.
    7. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich & Gita Gopinath & Prachi Mishra & Abhinav Narayanan, 2020. "Cash and the Economy: Evidence from India’s Demonetization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(1), pages 57-103.
    8. Sébastien Lotz & Françoise Vasselin, 2019. "A New Monetarist Model Of Fiat And E‐Money," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 498-514, January.
    9. Stephen Williamson, 2022. "Central Bank Digital Currency: Welfare and Policy Implications," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(11), pages 2829-2861.
    10. Runnemark, Emma & Hedman, Jonas & Xiao, Xiao, 2014. "Do Consumers Pay More Using Debit Cards than Cash? An Experiment," Working Papers 2014:21, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    11. Dominik H. Enste & Friedrich Schneider, 2000. "Shadow Economies: Size, Causes, and Consequences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 77-114, March.
    12. Nosal, Ed & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2011. "Money, Payments, and Liquidity," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262016281, April.
    13. Guillaume Rocheteau & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money in Search Equilibrium, in Competitive Equilibrium, and in Competitive Search Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 175-202, January.
    14. Friedrich Schneider & Dominik Enste, 1999. "Shadow Economies Around the World - Size, Causes, and Consequences," CESifo Working Paper Series 196, CESifo.
    15. Anirudh Tagat & Pushpa L. Trivedi, 2020. "Demand for cash: an econometric model of currency demand in India," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 205-222, May.
    16. Waknis, Parag, 2017. "Demonetisation: Some Theoretical Perspectives," MPRA Paper 76391, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Amartya Lahiri, 2020. "The Great Indian Demonetization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 55-74, Winter.
    18. Koreshkova, Tatyana A., 2006. "A quantitative analysis of inflation as a tax on the underground economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 773-796, May.
    19. Kim, Young Sik & Lee, Manjong, 2010. "A model of debit card as a means of payment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1359-1368, August.
    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. Jeremy Srouji, 2020. "Digital Payments, the Cashless Economy, and Financial Inclusion in the United Arab Emirates: Why Is Everyone Still Transacting in Cash?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-10, October.
    2. Jeremy Srouji & Dominique Torre, 2022. "The Global Pandemic, Laboratory of the Cashless Economy?," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-13, November.
    3. Jeremy Samer Srouji, 2020. "Digital Payments, the Cashless Economy, and Financial Inclusion in the United Arab Emirates: Why Is Everyone Still Transacting in Cash?," Post-Print hal-03015357, HAL.
    4. Anirudh Tagat & Mehmet Özmen & Gregory Markowsky, 2024. "Banknote Life in India: A Survival Analysis Approach," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 22(2), pages 519-545, June.

    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. Ayushi Bajaj & Nikhil Damodaran, 2021. "Consumer Payment Choice and the Heterogeneous Impact of India’s Demonetization," Monash Economics Working Papers 2021-15, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    2. Bajaj, Ayushi & Damodaran, Nikhil, 2022. "Consumer payment choice and the heterogeneous impact of India’s demonetization," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Françoise Vasselin, 2018. "The Competition Between Cash and Mobile Payments in Markets with Mobile Partnerships A Monetary Search Model Point of View," Working Papers hal-01722404, HAL.
    4. Dr. Robert Oleschak, 2021. "Financial inclusion, technology and their impacts on monetary and fiscal policy: theory and evidence," Working Papers 2021-04, Swiss National Bank.
    5. Françoise Vasselin, 2018. "The Competition Between Cash and Mobile Payments in Markets with Mobile Partnerships A Monetary Search Model Point of View," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01722404, HAL.
    6. Ohik Kwon & Seungduck Lee & Jaevin Park, 2022. "Central bank digital currency, tax evasion, and inflation tax," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1497-1519, October.
    7. Hendrickson, Joshua R. & Park, Jaevin, 2021. "The case against eliminating large denomination bills," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    8. Pidong Huang & Young Sik Kim & Manjong Lee, 2014. "Optimal Allocation of Social Cost for Electronic Payment System: A Ramsey Approach," Discussion Paper Series 1402, Institute of Economic Research, Korea University.
    9. Ohik Kwon & Seungduck Lee & Jaevin Park, 2020. "Central Bank Digital Currency, Tax Evasion, Inflation Tax, and Central Bank Independence," Working Papers 2020-26, Economic Research Institute, Bank of Korea.
    10. Mohammed Aït Lahcen, 2017. "Informality and the long run Phillips curve," ECON - Working Papers 248, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Dec 2018.
    11. Berentsen, Aleksander & Huber, Samuel & Marchesiani, Alessandro, 2016. "The societal benefit of a financial transaction tax," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 303-323.
    12. Sébastien Lotz & Françoise Vasselin, 2019. "A New Monetarist Model Of Fiat And E‐Money," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 498-514, January.
    13. Davoodalhosseini, Seyed Mohammadreza, 2022. "Central bank digital currency and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    14. Pedro Gomis-Porqueras & Daniel Sanches, 2013. "Optimal Monetary Policy in a Model of Money and Credit," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(4), pages 701-730, June.
    15. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Wright, Randall, 2013. "Liquidity and asset-market dynamics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 275-294.
    16. Aruoba, S. Borağan, 2021. "Institutions, tax evasion, and optimal policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 212-229.
    17. Branch, William A. & Petrosky-Nadeau, Nicolas & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2016. "Financial frictions, the housing market, and unemployment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 101-135.
    18. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Wright, Randall & Xiaolin Xiao, Sylvia, 2018. "Open market operations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 114-128.
    19. Venky Venkateswaran & Randall Wright, 2014. "Pledgability and Liquidity: A New Monetarist Model of Financial and Macroeconomic Activity," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 227-270.
    20. Solis-Garcia, Mario & Xie, Yingtong, 2018. "Measuring the size of the shadow economy using a dynamic general equilibrium model with trends," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 258-275.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • E41 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Demand for Money
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mos:moswps:2020-07. 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: Simon Angus (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dxmonau.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.