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Purpose Despite the rapid growth of QR-based mobile payments, little is known about whether mobile payment adoption changes consumer spending uniformly or reallocates spending toward specific purchase segments. Using data from South Korea, we examine how adoption of QR-based mobile payments reshapes spending composition along two dimensions: purchase value (low-vs. high-value) and purchase type (discretionary vs. non-discretionary). Design/methodology/approach Using large scale transaction data obtained by financial management platform, and a difference-in-differences framework, we empirically compare consumers who adopted a widely used QR-based mobile payment with non-adopters. We use propensity score matching to ensure the comparability of treated and control group. Findings QR-based mobile payment adoption increases frequency of low-value purchases and spending on discretionary categories, while not affecting high-value or non-discretionary purchases. Additionally, the increase in discretionary spending is concentrated on low-cost purchases, with no significant change in high-cost discretionary purchases. These effects are more pronounced among younger consumers and those with higher baseline discretionary spending. Research limitations/implications The results highlight the need to align mobile payment system with consumer protection and long-term financial well-being, given its effects on low-value discretionary purchases. This study is based on a single-country, single-platform setting in South Korea, which limit the generalizability. Originality/value Rather than characterizing mobile payment effects as a general increase in spending, this study provides transaction-level evidence on which purchase segments drive the change by decomposing purchase value and purchase type. Also, by documenting heterogeneity across age and baseline spending patterns, we identify boundary conditions of the effects.
Hwang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.