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A Tale of Two Countries: Cash Demand in Canada and Sweden

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  • Walter Engert
  • Ben Fung
  • Björn Segendorf

Abstract

Cash use for payments has been steadily decreasing in many countries, including Canada and Sweden. This might suggest an evolution toward a cashless society. But in Canada, cash in circulation relative to GDP has been stable for decades and has even increased in recent years. By contrast, the cash-to-GDP ratio in Sweden has been falling steadily. What has caused this difference? Are there lessons to be learned from comparing the Canadian and Swedish experiences?

Suggested Citation

  • Walter Engert & Ben Fung & Björn Segendorf, 2019. "A Tale of Two Countries: Cash Demand in Canada and Sweden," Discussion Papers 2019-7, Bank of Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocadp:19-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

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    2. 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.
    3. Solomon H. Tarlin, 2021. "The Future of Cash," Community Affairs Discussion Paper 21-03, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    4. Lalouette, Laure & Zamora-Pérez, Alejandro & Rusu, Codruta & Bartzsch, Nikolaus & Politronacci, Emmanuelle & Delmas, Martial & Rua, António & Brandi, Marco & Naksi, Martti, 2021. "Foreign demand for euro banknotes," Occasional Paper Series 253, European Central Bank.
    5. Daniela Balutel & Christopher Henry & Kim Huynh & Marcel Voia, 2022. "Cash in the Pocket, Cash in the Cloud: Cash Holdings of Bitcoin Owners," Staff Working Papers 22-26, Bank of Canada.
    6. Hanna Armelius & Carl Andreas Claussen & André Reslow, 2022. "Withering Cash: Is Sweden Ahead of the Curve or Just Special?," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 18(4), pages 1-52, October.
    7. Claussen, Carl Andreas & Segendorff, Björn & Seitz, Franz, 2023. "Cash for Transactions or Store-of-Value? A comparative study on Sweden and peer countries," Working Paper Series 427, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    8. Tamás Végsõ, 2020. "Comparative Analysis of the Changes in Cash Demand in Hungary," Financial and Economic Review, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary), vol. 19(1), pages 90-118.
    9. Markkula, Tuomas & Takalo, Tuomas, 2021. "Competition and regulation in the Finnish ATM industry," BoF Economics Review 8/2021, Bank of Finland.
    10. Svetlana Abramova & Rainer Böhme & Helmut Elsinger & Helmut Stix & Martin Summer, 2022. "What can CBDC designers learn from asking potential users? Results from a survey of Austrian residents (Svetlana Abramova, Rainer Böhme, Helmut Elsinger, Helmut Stix, Martin Summer)," Working Papers 241, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    11. Kim Huynh & Gradon Nicholls & Mitchell Nicholson, 2020. "2019 Cash Alternative Survey Results," Discussion Papers 2020-8, Bank of Canada.
    12. Li, Jiaqi, 2023. "Predicting the demand for central bank digital currency: A structural analysis with survey data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 73-85.
    13. Christopher Henry & Matthew Shimoda & Julia Zhu, 2022. "2021 Methods-of-Payment Survey Report," Discussion Papers 2022-23, Bank of Canada.
    14. Martin Brown & Nicole Hentschel & Hannes Mettler & Helmut Stix, 2020. "Financial Innovation, Payment Choice and Cash Demand – Causal Evidence from the Staggered Introduction of Contactless Debit Cards (Martin Brown,Nicole Hentschel, Hannes Mettler, Helmut Stix)," Working Papers 230, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    15. Martin Brown & Nicole Hentschel & Hannes Mettler & Helmut Stix, 2020. "Financial Innovation, Payment Choice and Cash Demand - Causal Evidence from the Staggered Introduction of Contactless Debit Cards," Working Papers on Finance 2002, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank notes; Digital Currencies and Fintech; Financial services; Payment clearing and settlement systems;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E41 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Demand for Money
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit

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