Using data from a 2004 survey of the Canadian public, the authors study the role of convenience and risk in consumers' use of cash relative to debit and credit cards. The authors find that consumers who perceive debit cards and credit cards to be more convenient and less risky than cash use them more frequently. Even at low levels of perceived risk, consumers shift substantially away from cash and towards alternative payment methods. However, the authors' results reveal that there exists a lower bound for which cards can substitute for cash. Also, as other studies have shown, the relative use of cash is higher among older, less-educated, lower-income consumers.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Bank of Canada in its series Discussion Papers with number
09-8.