IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v29y2012i5p1579-1584.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficient payments: How much do they cost for the Central Bank?

Author

Listed:
  • Bouhdaoui, Y.
  • Bounie, D.

Abstract

Previous works related to optimal denominations for coins and banknotes consider that the “principle of least effort” that defines an efficient payment is the most important criterion for two main reasons. Firstly, it is more convenient for transactors and, secondly, it limits the production costs of denominations incurred by the central bank. Exploiting production cost data for the U.S. currency system in 2010, we show using simulations that efficient payments actually increase the annual production costs of the Federal Reserve by $156 million. As a consequence, we raise a larger issue for central banks which consists in issuing an efficient denominational mix that is more convenient for transactors and that reduces the production costs of denominations.

Suggested Citation

  • Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D., 2012. "Efficient payments: How much do they cost for the Central Bank?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1579-1584.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:29:y:2012:i:5:p:1579-1584
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2012.04.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999312001411
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2012.04.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Hove, Leo & Heyndels, Bruno, 1996. "On the optimal spacing of currency denominations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 547-552, May.
    2. Mr. Richard K. Abrams, 1995. "The Design and Printing of Bank Notes: Considerations When Introducing a New Currency," IMF Working Papers 1995/026, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Garcia-Swartz Daniel D. & Hahn Robert W. & Layne-Farrar Anne, 2006. "The Move Toward a Cashless Society: A Closer Look at Payment Instrument Economics," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-24, June.
    4. Van Hove, Leo, 2001. "Optimal Denominations for Coins and Bank Notes: In Defense of the Principle of Least Effort," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(4), pages 1015-1021, November.
    5. Sumner, Scott, 1993. "Privatizing the Mint," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(1), pages 13-29, February.
    6. Massoud, Nadia, 2005. "How should Central Banks determine and control their bank note inventory?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 3099-3119, December.
    7. Franses, Philip Hans & Kippers, Jeanine, 2007. "An empirical analysis of euro cash payments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1985-1997, November.
    8. Geoffrey R. Gerdes & May X. Liu & Darrel W. Parke & Jack K. Walton, 2005. "Trends in the use of payment instruments in the United States," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), vol. 91(Spr), pages 180-201.
    9. Manjong Lee & Neil Wallace & Tao Zhu, 2005. "Modeling Denomination Structures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(3), pages 949-960, May.
    10. Wynne, Mark A., 1997. "More on optimal denominations for coins and currency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 221-225, August.
    11. Sebastien Lotz & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2004. "The fate of one-dollar coins in the U.S," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Oct.
    12. Telser, L. G., 1995. "Optimal denominations for coins and currency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 425-427, October.
    13. Cramer, J. S., 1983. "Currency by denomination," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 12(3-4), pages 299-303.
    14. N/A, 1996. "Note:," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 31(1-2), pages 1-1, January.
    15. Boeschoten, W C & Fase, M M G, 1989. "The Way We Pay with Money," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 7(3), pages 319-326, July.
    16. Guibourg, Gabriela & Segendorff, Bjorn, 2007. "A note on the price- and cost structure of retail payment services in the Swedish banking sector 2002," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2817-2827, September.
    17. Tschoegl, Adrian E, 1997. "The Optimal Denomination of Currency: A Conjecture," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(4), pages 546-554, November.
    18. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D. & Van Hove, L., 2011. "Central banks and their banknote series: The efficiency-cost trade-off," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1482-1488, July.
    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. Van Hove, Leo, 2015. "Modelling banknote printing costs: of cohorts, generations, and note-years," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 238-249.
    2. Bouhdaoui, Yassine & Van Hove, Leo, 2017. "On the socially optimal density of coin and banknote series: Do production costs really matter?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 252-267.
    3. Arango-Arango, Carlos A. & Bouhdaoui, Yassine & Bounie, David & Eschelbach, Martina & Hernandez, Lola, 2018. "Cash remains top-of-wallet! International evidence from payment diaries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 38-48.
    4. Arkadiusz Manikowski, 2017. "Analysis of the denomination structure of the Polish currency in the context of the launch of the new 500 zloty banknote," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 48(5), pages 495-530.

    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. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D. & Van Hove, L., 2011. "Central banks and their banknote series: The efficiency-cost trade-off," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1482-1488, July.
    2. Prescott, Brian C. & Shy, Oz, 2023. "Cash payments and the penny policy debate," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 80-94.
    3. Shy, Oz, 2020. "How currency denomination and the ATM affect the way we pay," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Bouhdaoui, Yassine & Van Hove, Leo, 2017. "On the socially optimal density of coin and banknote series: Do production costs really matter?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 252-267.
    5. Franses, Philip Hans & Kippers, Jeanine, 2007. "An empirical analysis of euro cash payments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1985-1997, November.
    6. Joshi Harit & Mukherjee, Saral, 2017. "Transitions in currency denomination structure as supply disruption and demand distortion: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Bullwhip," IIMA Working Papers WP 2017-05-02, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    7. Tschoegl, Adrian E., 2010. "The international diffusion of an innovation: The spread of decimal currency," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 100-109, January.
    8. Sotiris Vandoros, 2013. "My five pounds are not as good as yours, so I will spend them," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 16(4), pages 546-559, December.
    9. Lee, Manjong, 2010. "Carrying cost of money and real effects of denomination structure," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 326-337, March.
    10. Kaushik Bhattacharya, 2011. "Demand and Supply of Currencies of Small Denominations: A Theoretical Framework," Journal of Quantitative Economics, The Indian Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 123-139, July.
    11. Farley Grubb, 2015. "Common Currency versus Currency Union: The U.S. Continental Dollar and Denominational Structure, 1775-1776," NBER Working Papers 21728, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Farley Grubb, 2015. "Common Currency versus Currency Union: The U.S. Continental Dollar and Denominational Structure, 1775-1779," Working Papers 15-10, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    13. Bouhdaoui, Y. & Bounie, D. & François, A., 2014. "Convenient prices, cash payments and price rigidity," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 329-337.
    14. Yiwei Huang & Yunxia Zhu & Subodha Kumar & Bala Shetty & Chelliah Sriskandarajah, 2020. "A Framework for Analyzing the U.S. Coin Supply Chain," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(12), pages 2736-2759, December.
    15. Franses, Ph.H.B.F. & Kippers, J., 2003. "How do we pay with euro notes? Empirical evidence from Monopoly experiments," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 2003-32, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    16. Yamamoto, Ken, 2014. "Fractal patterns related to dividing coins," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 51-57.
    17. Wynne, Mark A., 1997. "More on optimal denominations for coins and currency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 221-225, August.
    18. 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.
    19. Chen, Heng & Huynh, Kim P. & Shy, Oz, 2019. "Cash versus card: Payment discontinuities and the burden of holding coins," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 192-201.
    20. Whynes, David K. & Frew, Emma J. & Philips, Zoe N. & Covey, Judith & Smith, Richard D., 2007. "On the numerical forms of contingent valuation responses," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 462-476, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Currency denominations; Efficient payments; Cost of cash transactions; Production costs; Central banks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates
    • E47 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications

    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:eee:ecmode:v:29:y:2012:i:5:p:1579-1584. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    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.