Impact of Unified Payments on spending habits in urban India: A scoping review.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is India’s dominant retail payment system. Its low frictionmay weaken the “pain of paying” that cash imposes and so change how much, and how often,people spend. The objective of this review is to map the evidence on how UPI affects thespending behaviour of urban Indian consumers, appraise the strongest available study, andidentify gaps. Methods. A scoping review guided by the Arksey and O’Malley framework andreported against PRISMA-ScR items where applicable. Google Scholar, SSRN and arXiv weresearched in October. Only one study could be identified for a full thematic analysis, in which74.2% of the 235 respondents report increased spending. Studies selected in the peripheralliterature, a section consisting of 8 studies which have adequate quality and relevancy foranalysis, show broadly similar patterns. The evidence is cross-sectional and self-reported,samples are small and skew young, educated, urban and male, and no UPI-specific studyestablishes a causal effect on total consumption. Urban users widely perceive UPI as increasingtheir spending, but whether it raises total consumption or only digitises existing cash purchasesis unresolved. Longitudinal and transaction-level studies, and studies of rural and vulnerableusers, are needed.