Small money, large profits: how the cashless revolution aggravates social inequality

IF 3.2 2区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS Socio-Economic Review Pub Date : 2024-01-05 DOI:10.1093/ser/mwad071

Barbara Brandl, David Hengsbach, Guadalupe Moreno

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The replacement of cash by cashless alternatives carries huge potential to aggravate social inequality. Governments struggle to manage these dynamics since they must keep a delicate balance between the formation of strong players and the provision of inclusive payment options. Studying the political economy behind the payment industry is crucial to understanding how digitalization has transformed payments. To this aim, we look at the history of the payment industry in two cases: the USA and the euro area. In the USA, the cashless revolution gave rise to an oligopoly of two extremely successful credit card companies, which, however, resulted in a banking system that does not serve the needs of at least one-fifth of the population. In the euro area, the population has access to affordable financial services; however, neither the private nor the public sector has been able to provide the infrastructure to integrate European payments.

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小钱大利：无现金革命如何加剧社会不平等

无现金支付方式取代现金支付有可能加剧社会不平等。各国政府都在努力管理这些动态变化，因为它们必须在形成强势参与者和提供包容性支付选择之间保持微妙的平衡。研究支付行业背后的政治经济对于理解数字化如何改变支付方式至关重要。为此，我们将从美国和欧元区两个案例中考察支付行业的发展历程。在美国，无现金革命催生了两家极为成功的信用卡公司的寡头垄断，但这导致银行系统无法满足至少五分之一人口的需求。在欧元区，人们可以获得负担得起的金融服务；然而，无论是私营部门还是公共部门，都未能为欧洲支付一体化提供基础设施。

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来源期刊

Socio-Economic Review Multiple-

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

10.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： Originating in the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), Socio-Economic Review (SER) is part of a broader movement in the social sciences for the rediscovery of the socio-political foundations of the economy. Devoted to the advancement of socio-economics, it deals with the analytical, political and moral questions arising at the intersection between economy and society. Articles in SER explore how the economy is or should be governed by social relations, institutional rules, political decisions, and cultural values. They also consider how the economy in turn affects the society of which it is part, for example by breaking up old institutional forms and giving rise to new ones. The domain of the journal is deliberately broadly conceived, so new variations to its general theme may be discovered and editors can learn from the papers that readers submit. To enhance international dialogue, Socio-Economic Review accepts the submission of translated articles that are simultaneously published in a language other than English. In pursuit of its program, SER is eager to promote interdisciplinary dialogue between sociology, economics, political science and moral philosophy, through both empirical and theoretical work. Empirical papers may be qualitative as well as quantitative, and theoretical papers will not be confined to deductive model-building. Papers suggestive of more generalizable insights into the economy as a domain of social action will be preferred over narrowly specialized work. While firmly committed to the highest standards of scholarly excellence, Socio-Economic Review encourages discussion of the practical and ethical dimensions of economic action, with the intention to contribute to both the advancement of social science and the building of a good economy in a good society.