Payment Instruments, Financial Privacy and Online Purchases

Abstract

The protection of financial personal data has become a major concern for Internet users in the digital economy. This paper investigates whether the consumers’ use of non-bank payment instruments that preserve financial privacy from banks and relatives may increase their online purchases. We analyze the purchasing decisions and the use of bank and non-bank payment instruments of a representative sample of French Internet consumers in 2015. Using two econometric methods, namely a two-step regression and a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo model to account for a potential endogeneity problem, we find evidence that the use of a non-bank payment instrument positively influences consumers’ online purchases.