Publikation: Monographie

Institutional hostility to cash and COVID-19

Grunddaten
Abstract
Autoren
Einrichtung

Grunddaten

Titel	Institutional hostility to cash and COVID-19
Erscheinungsjahr	2020
Verlag	Universität Rostock
Verlagsort	Rostock
Serie	Thünen-series of applied economic theory ; no. 166
Publikationsform	Elektronische Ressource
Publikationsart	Monographie
Sprache	Englisch
Letzte Änderung	20.12.2023 13:01:58
Bearbeitungsstatus	durch UB Rostock abschließend validiert
Dauerhafte URL	http://purl.uni-rostock.de/fodb/pub/70688
Links zu Katalogen

Abstract

By "hostility to cash" we refer to the recent trend of incentivizing individuals towards a (privately managed) digital payment system driven by banking and financial sectors and supported by Governments. COVID-19 has on the one hand boosted this movement, with false messages about banknotes spreading the virus as a new instrument of convincement. On the other, the enduring flight to cash shows that this "relic" is even more essential in bad economic times. Restricting or eliminating cash is synonymous of welfare losses due to increased monopoly power of the financial and technology industry, reduced privacy, and threatened financial stability as a public good. As a consequence, financial exclusion and social discrimination would increase, adding to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on inequality. By means of a logical-analytical approach combined with the newest statistical evidence and never-published comparative tables, the paper demonstrates why banknotes and coins are - all the more, in uncertain times due to SARS-CoV-2 - not otherwise substitutable, but rather a public good to be safeguarded.

Autoren

Beretta, Edoardo
Neuberger, Doris

Einrichtung

WSF/IfVWL/Geld und Kredit