Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bca/bocawp/19-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Systemic Privacy as a Public Good: A Case for Electronic Cash

Author

Listed:
  • Rod Garratt
  • Maarten van Oordt
Abstract
Cash gives users a high level of privacy when making payments, but the use of cash to make payments is declining. People increasingly use debit cards, credit cards or other methods to pay. These payment methods do not provide the same level of privacy as cash. Meanwhile, providers of such payment methods are increasingly seeking ways to earn money from the payments data of their clients. We identify an economic mechanism that explains why people may choose too little privacy when considering how to pay. People do not bear the full costs of failing to protect their privacy. Data revealed by one person when they do not protect their privacy can be used to make inferences about the purchasing habits of another individual, even if that individual has taken steps to protect their own data. Economists call this mechanism an externality. It is easy to imagine a scenario where, because of this externality, people have very little privacy when making payments, even though privacy is highly valued in society. When left to market forces, this externality could also result in a faster decline in the use of cash than what would be optimal. Is it possible to reverse the trend toward less privacy in payments? Perhaps introducing a widely accepted electronic cash that offers the convenience of digital payments and the privacy of cash could help.

Suggested Citation

  • Rod Garratt & Maarten van Oordt, 2019. "Systemic Privacy as a Public Good: A Case for Electronic Cash," Staff Working Papers 19-24, Bank of Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocawp:19-24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/swp2019-24.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pagano, Marco & Jappelli, Tullio, 1993. "Information Sharing in Credit Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1693-1718, December.
    2. Miguel Molico, 2006. "The Distribution Of Money And Prices In Search Equilibrium," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 47(3), pages 701-722, August.
    3. Dan Kovenock, 2002. "Fiat Exchange in Finite Economies," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(2), pages 147-157, April.
    4. Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2016. "The Curse of Cash," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10798.
    5. Shota Ichihashi, 2020. "Online Privacy and Information Disclosure by Consumers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(2), pages 569-595, February.
    6. John M. Abowd & Ian M. Schmutte, 2019. "An Economic Analysis of Privacy Protection and Statistical Accuracy as Social Choices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 171-202, January.
    7. Alessandro Acquisti & Curtis Taylor & Liad Wagman, 2016. "The Economics of Privacy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(2), pages 442-492, June.
    8. Wallace, Neil, 2001. "Whither Monetary Economics?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 42(4), pages 847-869, November.
    9. Christopher Henry & Kim Huynh & Angelika Welte, 2018. "2017 Methods-of-Payment Survey Report," Discussion Papers 18-17, Bank of Canada.
    10. Athey, Susan & Catalini, Christian & Tucker, Catherin E., 2017. "The Digital Privacy Paradox: Small Money, Small Costs, Small Talk," Research Papers 3498, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    11. Charles M. Kahn & James McAndrews & William Roberds, 2005. "Money Is Privacy," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 377-399, May.
    12. Choi, Jay Pil & Jeon, Doh-Shin & Kim, Byung-Cheol, 2019. "Privacy and personal data collection with information externalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 113-124.
    13. Balasko, Yves & Shell, Karl, 1981. "The overlapping-generations model. II. The case of pure exchange with money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 112-142, February.
    14. Mr. Tanai Khiaonarong & David Humphrey, 2019. "Cash Use Across Countries and the Demand for Central Bank Digital Currency," IMF Working Papers 2019/046, International Monetary Fund.
    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. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2022. "Designing central bank digital currencies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 62-79.
    2. Boot, Arnoud & Hoffmann, Peter & Laeven, Luc & Ratnovski, Lev, 2020. "Financial intermediation and technology: What’s old, what’s new?," Working Paper Series 2438, European Central Bank.
    3. Jan Krzysztof Solarz & Krzysztof Waliszewski, 2022. "Pandemia COVID‑19 z perspektywy finansów – przenikanie się świata realnego i wirtualnego," Ekonomista, Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne, issue 2, pages 213-234.
    4. Boot, Arnoud & Hoffmann, Peter & Laeven, Luc & Ratnovski, Lev, 2021. "Fintech: what’s old, what’s new?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    5. Peter Wierts & Harro Boven, "undated". "Central Bank Digital Currency - Objectives, preconditions and design choices," DNB Occasional Studies 20-01, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    6. Laeven, Luc & Boot, Arnoud & Hoffmann, Peter & Ratnovski, Lev, 2020. "Financial Intermediation and Technology: What’s Old, What’s New?," CEPR Discussion Papers 15004, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Jorge Ponce, 2020. "Digitalization, retail payments and Central Bank Digital Currency," Revista de Estabilidad Financiera, Banco de España, issue Autumn.
    8. Nadia Pocher & Andreas Veneris, 2022. "Central Bank Digital Currencies," Springer Optimization and Its Applications, in: Duc A. Tran & My T. Thai & Bhaskar Krishnamachari (ed.), Handbook on Blockchain, pages 463-501, Springer.

    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. Mert Demirer & Diego Jimenez-Hernandez & Dean Li & Sida Peng, 2024. "Data, Privacy Laws and Firm Production: Evidence from the GDPR," Working Paper Series WP 2024-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    2. Jiadong Gu, 2024. "Data Trade and Consumer Privacy," Papers 2406.12457, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2024.
    3. Yosuke Uno & Akira Sonoda & Masaki Bessho, 2021. "The Economics of Privacy: A Primer Especially for Policymakers," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 21-E-11, Bank of Japan.
    4. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2022. "Designing central bank digital currencies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 62-79.
    5. Dirk Bergemann & Alessandro Bonatti & Tan Gan, 2022. "The economics of social data," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 53(2), pages 263-296, June.
    6. Daniel Krähmer & Roland Strausz, 2023. "Optimal Nonlinear Pricing with Data-Sensitive Consumers," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 80-108, May.
    7. Ratul Das Chaudhury & Chongwoo Choe, 2023. "Digital Privacy: GDPR and Its Lessons for Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 56(2), pages 204-220, June.
    8. He, Zhiguo & Huang, Jing & Zhou, Jidong, 2023. "Open banking: Credit market competition when borrowers own the data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 449-474.
    9. Yiquan Gu & Leonardo Madio & Carlo Reggiani, 2022. "Data brokers co-opetition [The impact of big data on firm performance: an empirical investigation]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 820-839.
    10. Rehse, Dominik & Tremöhlen, Felix, 2020. "Fostering participation in digital public health interventions: The case of digital contact tracing," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-076, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Abrardi, Laura & Cambini, Carlo, 2022. "Carpe Data: Protecting online privacy with naive users," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Amalia R. Miller, 2023. "Privacy of Digital Health Information," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Privacy, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Shy, Oz, 2021. "Cashless stores and cash users," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 622-638.
    14. Jin, Ginger Zhe & Wagman, Liad, 2021. "Big data at the crossroads of antitrust and consumer protection," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    15. Ed Saiedi & Anders Broström & Felipe Ruiz, 2021. "Global drivers of cryptocurrency infrastructure adoption," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 353-406, June.
    16. Jean-Marc Zogheib & Marc Bourreau, 2021. "Privacy, Competition, and Multi-Homing," EconomiX Working Papers 2021-15, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    17. Rehse, Dominik & Tremöhlen, Felix, 2022. "Fostering participation in digital contact tracing," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    18. Michiel Bijlsma & Carin van der Cruijsen & Nicole Jonker, 2024. "Not all data are created equal - Data sharing and privacy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(11), pages 1250-1267, March.
    19. Shuaicheng Liu, 2024. "Privacy regulation in asymmetric environments," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 157-173, December.
    20. Morten Linnemann Bech & Rodney Garratt, 2017. "Central bank cryptocurrencies," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Staff Research; Staff Working Papers;

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bca:bocawp:19-24. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bocgvca.html .

    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.