Resumen de Openness and Technology Diffusion in Payment Systems: the Case of NAFTA

Francisco José Callado Muñoz, Jana Hromcová, Natalia María Utrero González

• We study the relationship between openness and payment system development. Inparticular, we analyze how the existence of technology di§usion from a more developedcountry fosters a transformation of payment choice in a less developed country. We applyour analysis to Mexico. Economic growth in Mexico was not high enough to cause atransformation of payment choice observed in the data after 2001. We argue that theswitch towards electronic payments can be attributed to openness and related paymenttechnology spillovers from the US in the context of NAFTA.