This paper empirically investigates whether individuals withhold a certain amount of cash for precautionary reasons at … the point-of-sale (POS) in order to be able to cover future transactions that might have to be paid for in cash. Such … being settled in cash declines significantly as the amount of cash available at one’s disposal decreases. This indicates …

We measure consumers’ use of cash by harmonizing payment diary surveys from seven countries: Australia, Austria, Canada …-country differences, for example, the level of cash usage differs across countries. Cash has not disappeared as a payment instrument …, especially for low-value transactions. We also find that the use of cash is strongly correlated with transaction size …