AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON EFFICACY OF DEMONETIZATION IN INDIA: POLICY ROLLOUT ON DEMONETIZING OLD CURRENCY

Abstract

Demonetization is the process of declining the use of currency from circulation by the government or monetary authorities in a country. This research paper analyses the efficacy of Indian demonetization from common public perspectives, the policy that the government of India has implemented to fight against black money, drying the financial roots of terrorism, and direct the civilization towards digital transactions and a cashless economy. A field survey was conducted in Karnataka and Kerala’s coastal region by distributing a structured questionnaire among the common public to generate the data. The authors run descriptive statistics and ordinal regression analysis to obtain the result for the study’s objectives. The descriptive statistics result found that demonetization increased the number of bank account holders in India. There is not much impact of demonetization on controlling evasion of tax and illegal investments of black money, and the policy adversely affects regular business in the country. The findings from ordinal regression reveal that the time frame was given to the public to demonetize their old notes were sufficient; money circulation was well planned at the time of demonetization. The policy implemented at the right time and the common public, despite facing enormous challenges while purchasing goods and services at the time of demonetization, considers that demonetization implementation was effective. JEL Classification Codes: E5, E6, E7, E58, E60.