Monetizing Privacy with Central Bank Digital Currencies

Abstract

In a market where consumers choose between payment options, and firms compete with products and prices, we show that payment data drives the formation of a market monopoly. A data sharing policy can successfully restore and maintain a competitive market, but often at the expense of both efficiency and consumer welfare. The introduction of a privacy-preserving central bank digital currency (CBDC), or digital cash, preserves the market structure and improves consumers’ welfare by enabling them to monetize their private information.