Recent legislation and court settlements in the United States allow merchants to use price discounts to steer customers to pay with means of payment that are less costly to merchants. This paper suggests one method of calculating merchants' change in profit associated with giving price discounts...

Cash users withdraw money from automated teller machines (ATMs) to finance cash payments. However, most ATMs in the United States dispense only multiples of $20 bills. The paper first constructs a consumer's optimization model showing how the precise denomination of dollar bills available from...

The emergence of cashless stores has led several cities and states to ban such stores. This paper investigates this issue by characterizing consumers who pay cash for in-person purchases and consumers who do not have credit or debit cards. I construct a model of consumer payment choice and use...

The paper investigates the degree to which buyers choose to diversify their use of payment methods for in-person purchases. Some buyers use only one payment instrument. Others combine the use of mostly cash, credit, debit cards, and a few paper checks and prepaid cards. To each survey...