Assessing incentives to increase digital payment acceptance and usage: A machine learning approach

An important step to achieve greater financial inclusion is to increase the acceptance and usage of digital payments. Although consumer adoption of digital payments has improved dramatically globally, the acceptance and usage of digital payments for micro, small, and medium-sized retailers (MSMRs) remain challenging. Using random forest estimation, the authors identify 14 key predictors out of 190 variables with the largest predictive power for MSMR adoption and usage of digital payments. Using conditional inference trees, they study the importance of sequencing and interactions of various factors such as public policy initiatives, technological advancements, and private sector incentives.

• Date: 18/01/2022
• Author(s): Jeff Allen, Santiago Carbo Valverde, Sujit Chakravorti, Francisco Rodriguez-Fernandez and Oya Pinar Ardic
• Sector: Any
• Topics: Digital technology, Inclusive finance, Sustainable enterprises
• Regions: Global
• Resource type: Publications from partners
• Institutions: World Bank Group