12 As Prof Profeta makes clear in her book, the political economy angle and the public economics view cannot be meaningfully separated as they are constantly interacting in feedback and amplification loops: the degree of gender diversity in decision-making bodies shapes economic policies, which in turn influence progress, and sadly sometimes also setbacks, in terms of gender parity in many areas of public and private life - and vice versa.
Given these figures, it is not surprising that the number of cashless payment transactions per inhabitant in the US is higher than in the euro area.5 However, the fact that it is twice as high is remarkable. Why do the retail payments markets in the US and euro area differ?