IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v246y2025ics0165176524005585.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital payments in India — How demonetization and COVID-19 shaped adoption?

Author

Listed:
  • Yadav, Varun
  • Das, Abhiman

Abstract

In this article, we study the adoption of digital payment technologies in India over the last decade. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study assesses if the demonetization exercise of 2016 led to an enhanced adoption of digital payments. We further study the evolution of digital payment usage in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study finds insufficient evidence supporting the claim that demonetization led to an enhanced adoption of digital channels (measured by the value of transactions as a percentage of money supply). On the other hand, the lockdown in the wake of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic spurred the adoption of some new-age payment channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Yadav, Varun & Das, Abhiman, 2025. "Digital payments in India — How demonetization and COVID-19 shaped adoption?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:246:y:2025:i:c:s0165176524005585
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.112074
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176524005585
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2024.112074?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. Amartya Lahiri, 2020. "The Great Indian Demonetization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 55-74, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lucas A. Mariani & Jose Renato Haas Ornelas & Bernardo Ricca, 2023. "Banks’ Physical Footprint and Financial Technology Adoption," Working Papers Series 576, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    2. Aurazo, Jose & Gasmi, Farid, 2024. "Digital payment systems in emerging economies: Lessons from Kenya, India, Brazil, and Peru," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. MD Gyasuddin Ansari & Rudra Sensarma, 2023. "Monetary Policy, Liquidity Shock and Bank lending: The Case of Currency Demonetization in India," Working papers 575, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    4. Aurazo, Jose & Gasmi, Farid, 2024. "Digital payment systems in emerging economies: Lessons from Kenya, India, Brazil, and Peru," TSE Working Papers 24-1572, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    5. Bhanu Pratap & Nalin Priyaranjan, 2023. "Macroeconomic effects of uncertainty: a Google trends-based analysis for India," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 1599-1625, October.
    6. Hilaire, Alvin & Mahabir, Reshma, 2020. "The great exchange: Rapid demonetization in Trinidad and Tobago," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 1(1).
    7. Baruah, Prerona, 2022. "Investigating Commodity Price Relations across Wholesale Markets: The Case of Paddy in Chhattisgarh, India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 0(Number 01), March.
    8. 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).
    9. Tatjana Dahlhaus & Angelika Welte, 2024. "Payment habits during Covid-19: Evidence from high-frequency transaction data," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Granular data: new horizons and challenges, volume 61, Bank for International Settlements.
    10. Antón, Arturo & Hernández-Trillo, Fausto & Ventosa-Santaulària, Daniel, 2021. "(In)Effective tax enforcement and demand for cash," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. Mariani, Lucas A. & Haas Ornelas, José Renato & Ricca, Bernardo, 2023. "Banks’ Physical Footprint and Financial Technology Adoption," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12812, Inter-American Development Bank.
    12. repec:osf:socarx:qmce9_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. 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.
    14. Das, Satadru & Gadenne, Lucie & Nandi, Tushar & Warwick, Ross, 2023. "Does going cashless make you tax-rich? Evidence from India’s demonetization experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    15. Dev, Pritha & Unni, Jeemol, 2024. "Demonetisation and labour force participation in India: The impact of governance and political alignment," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Costa, Helia & Pisu, Mauro & Shreeti, Vatsala, 2022. "Short Term Cost of Cash and Mobile Financial Services: Evidence from a natural experiment in India," TSE Working Papers 22-1351, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    17. Alvarez, Fernando & Argente, David & Jimenez, Rafael & Lippi, Francesco, 2022. "Cash: A Blessing or a curse?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 85-128.
    18. Ajit K. Ghose & Abhishek Kumar, 2021. "India’s Deepening Employment Crisis in the Time of Rapid Economic Growth," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(2), pages 247-279, June.
    19. Garín, Julio & Lastrapes, William D. & Lester, Robert, 2021. "On the welfare effects of phasing out paper currency," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    20. 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.
    21. Ahsan, Md Nazmul & Thakur, Sounak, 2024. "The great Indian demonetization and gender gap in health outcomes: Evidence from two Indian states," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Digital payments in india; Demonetization; FinTech; PayTech;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    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:ecolet:v:246:y:2025:i:c:s0165176524005585. 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/ecolet .

    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.