Impact of digital payments on economic growth: Evidence from India

Abstract

In recent years, economic transactions are carried out through electronic or online or cashless means all over the world especially in developed countries and developing countries like India. As a result of increased digital means of payment has brought down usage of cash transactions in the economy. Digital transactions have the features of speed, less cost, and comfort. A well functioning digital payment system has much relevance on overall economic activity, monetary policy, and financial stability of a country. This study tries to verify the impact of digital payments on the economic growth of India. The economic growth is measured through a proxy – real Gross Domestic Product. Digital payments are measured using Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL) operated systems, paper clearing, retail electronic clearing, Card payments, and Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs). Data for digital payments and real GDP are collected from the year 2011 to 2019. Ordinary Least Square Regression, Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ADRL) co-integration approach and ARDL Bounds test are employed for the analysis. The study results reveal that digital payments impact economic growth significantly in the short run. But, digital payments don’t impact economic growth in the long-run.