The pricing of payments has received increasing attention of regulators. In many cases, regulators are concerned that consumers do not face cost based prices. They argue that without cost based prices consumers will make inefficient choices. In this paper, it is argued that both, economics of...

The euro's introduction highlights several shortcomings of cash and coins, and some advantages of paying with plastic, but is hard currency an endangered species, threatened by technologically more advanced means of payments, electronic transfers, e-money and the like? If the last twenty years...

The problems posed by a potential exit from a political union or federation of states is not a new one. In the current crisis the potential exit from a monetary union is particularly relevant. Not long ago, potential exit has been an important topic in Canada. The analyses of the consequences of...

Prominent economists such as John B. Taylor and William White have argued that monetary policy mistakes have triggered the current financial crisis. Central banks, however, seem to be mainly concerned with trouble-shooting and the design of new rules for banking supervision. Partly drawing on...

Rochet and Tirole have derived an elasticity rule for relative prices in two-sided markets. This rule is seen as counterintuitive because it seems to imply that the "more elastic side of the market" is charged more. In this note it is argued that this interpretation is based on the assumption...

Abstract Card payment systems are sometimes accused of taking from the poor and giving to the rich. The argument is as follows: High card fees are leading to higher retail prices for both, card users and cash users. However, high-income card holders are receiving rewards when purchasing by card....