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A blessing in disguise—The effect of China’s Covid-19 health code system on older people’s mobile payment usage

Author

Listed:
  • Zhu, Jialiang
  • Liu, Yun
  • Fang, Ying

Abstract

In early 2020, China launched a health code system to combat the spread of Covid-19. The required health code led to a drastic uptake of smartphone usage among older residents. This paper uses rich commercial data from the Zhejiang Province of China to track the change in consumption among the older population. The paper finds that older people significantly increased spending after switching to mobile payment. The paper contributes to the literature by identifying the unexpected windfall from the effect of the health code mandate on the older population and demonstrating that digital payment works well in the older population.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhu, Jialiang & Liu, Yun & Fang, Ying, 2023. "A blessing in disguise—The effect of China’s Covid-19 health code system on older people’s mobile payment usage," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:53:y:2023:i:c:s1544612323000454
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2023.103671
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health code; Digital finance; Older people’s consumption behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

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