Fintech adoption during epidemics depends on pre-existing inequalities

The pandemic increased remote working, online shopping, and telehealth, with important differences across socioeconomic groups in their ability to use such new technologies. Orkun Saka (LSE), Barry Eichengreen (Berkeley), and Cevat Giray Aksoy (King’s College London) investigate past epidemics and find that they significantly increase the likelihood that individuals do their banking using the internet, mobile banks, and cash machines. But inequality plays a role. Individuals who already have internet coverage are more likely to shift toward online banking during an epidemic.