European Central Bank working paper finds short digital euro explainer video raises stated adoption by 12 percentage points

The European Central Bank published a Working Paper on consumer attitudes toward a possible digital euro, drawing on randomized survey experiments embedded in its Consumer Expectations Survey. The paper finds that concise communication on the digital euro’s practical features can materially raise consumers’ immediate stated likelihood of adoption, while potential portfolio reallocation and the impact of moderate holding limits appear limited on aggregate. Using data from around 19,000 households across eleven euro area countries, the authors report that showing a 1:33 minute explainer video increases the likelihood of intended adoption by 12 percentage points versus a control group, with the largest uplift for peer-to-peer use. Effects largely fade within three months, with the follow-up showing a 3 percentage point increase in awareness but no effect on information search and only a small residual effect on peer-to-peer adoption. A majority of consumers shown the video still reported being unlikely to use a digital euro for day-to-day payments, most commonly citing preference for existing payment methods; only 38% of those offered additional FAQs chose to view them, skewing toward more financially literate and higher-educated respondents. In a €10,000 windfall allocation exercise, respondents allocated about 5.1% on average to digital euro (27% allocating anything), with little change in holdings of other traditional liquid assets. In a separate holding-limit experiment, limits in the €1,000 to €10,000 range produced minimal differences in liquid-asset allocations relative to a €3,000 baseline and little evidence of “bunching” at €3,000 and above.