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Payments and privacy in the digital economy

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  • Ahnert, Toni
  • Hoffmann, Peter
  • Monnet, Cyril

Abstract

We propose a model of financial intermediation, payments choice, and privacy in the digital economy. While digital payments enable merchants to sell goods online, they reveal information to their lender. Cash guarantees anonymity, but limits distribution to less efficient offline venues. In equilibrium, merchants trade off the efficiency gains from online distribution (with digital payments) and the informational rents from staying anonymous (with cash). Privacy-preserving digital payments raise welfare by reducing privacy concerns, but only arrangements that enable data-sharing through consent functionalities guarantee that the social optimum is attained.

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  • Ahnert, Toni & Hoffmann, Peter & Monnet, Cyril, 2022. "Payments and privacy in the digital economy," CEPR Discussion Papers 17313, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17313
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Chiu & Cyril Monnet, 2024. "Public and Private Money Creation for Distributed Ledgers: Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits, or Central Bank Digital Currencies?," Staff Working Papers 24-35, Bank of Canada.
    2. Te Bao & John Duffy & Nobuyuki Hanaki, 2024. "Paying to Avoid the Spotlight," ISER Discussion Paper 1238, Institute of Social and Economic Research, The University of Osaka.
    3. Magin, Jana Anjali & Neyer, Ulrike & Stempel, Daniel, 2023. "The macroeconomic effects of different CBDC regimes in an economy with a heterogeneous household sector," DICE Discussion Papers 396, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    4. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2025. "Bank competition and household privacy in a digital payment monopoly," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    5. Charles M. Kahn & Maarten R.C. van Oordt, 2022. "The Demand for Programmable Payments," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-076/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Mishra, Bineet & Prasad, Eswar, 2024. "A simple model of a central bank digital currency," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    7. Frost, Jon & Rochet, Jean-Charles & Shin, Huyn Song & Verdier, Marianne, 2025. "Competing digital monies," TSE Working Papers 25-1644, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Jul 2025.
    8. Keister, Todd & Monnet, Cyril, 2022. "Central bank digital currency: Stability and information," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    9. Magin, Jana & Neyer, Ulrike & Stempel, Daniel, 2023. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Different CBDC Regimes in an Economy with a Heterogeneous Household Sector," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277656, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Alexis Derviz, 2023. "Foreign Exchange Implications of CBDCs and Their Integration via Bridge Coins," Working Papers 2023/7, Czech National Bank, Research and Statistics Department.
    11. Wang, Chien-Chiang & Li, Yiting, 2023. "Anonymous credit," MPRA Paper 118480, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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