Stages of Development of Payment Systems : Leapfrogging across Countries and MENA's Place in the World

Gevaudan, Clement ; Lederman, Daniel

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: PAYMENT SYSTEM;    BANKING;    DIGITAL PAYMENT;    MOBILE MONEY;    DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9104
RP-ID  :  WPS9104

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper studies the relationshipbetween the level of economic development and the incidenceof three forms of payments across countries, namely theincidence of bank accounts, digital payments, and mobilemoney accounts among the adult populations across countries.It presents simple statistical tests of leapfrogging, thephenomenon by which poor countries surpass rich countries inthe provision of payments mechanisms. It contributes to abroader and long-standing literature on stages ofdevelopment, as well as to the literature on financialdevelopment and access to finance. The findings suggest thatthere is evidence of "absolute" and"relative" leapfrogging, with both terms definedin the paper. In addition, the Middle East and North Africaregion, on average, suffers from a notable underperformancegap across all observed stages of payment-systemsdevelopment. This finding suggests that the region suffersfrom structural impediments to the development of itsfinancial and banking systems that go well beyond theadoption of digital-technology tools.