Payment Methods in Motion

In recent years everyday payment behavior has undergone a rapid transformation in most countries of the European Union. Cash is increasingly displaced by non-cash, digital payment methods (Debit- and Credit Card, Payment Apps). Whereas, in Austria, such a decline in the use of cash as a daily payment instrument cannot be observed. In contrast to less developed European countries, the high share of cash payments measured in frequency and volume is not attributable to lacking technological infrastructure for such digital payment systems. Therefore, the aim of the present research project, funded by the Austrian Science Fund, is to investigate, from the perspective of Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Money, what contributes to this wide-spread preference for cash over non-cash payment methods. In order to empirically investigate this question, a qualitative pre-study will be conducted, which will be utilized to develop a standardized survey. In collaboration with the Institut für Empirische Sozialforschung (IFES, Vienna), we will then survey a representative sample of the Austrian residential population (N=2000) about the everyday social and cultural embeddedness of cash and non- cash payment methods. The investigation will focus three major research dimensions to study the day- to-day interactions with different payment methods sociologically. First, we will investigate the attitudes towards cash and non-cash payment methods. Second, we will look into subjective expectations of liquidity with cash and non-cash payment methods in different payment situations. By that, we mean the certainty people have in their expectation that a specific payment instrument will actually be accepted for payment (e.g., card payment at a farmers market). Lastly, we will study the influence by different institutionalized payment situations (buying goods on markets, sharing or donating money in communities, being coerced to pay fines). To study the impact of our mutually dependent research dimensions (attitudes towards different payment methods, subjective expectations of liquidity, and institutionalized payment situations) on the preference for payment instruments, we will carry out a structural equation model. With that in mind, we anticipate substantial insights into the s ocial and cultural conditions for the change of day-to-day payment practices. At the same time, we expect further sociological discoveries in regard to the social foundations of modern monetary orders.