India’s latest UPI framework creates an unusual economic experiment. 

The Finance Ministry says person-to-person payments remain free, as do merchant payments up to ₹2,000, while a 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate, or MDR, applies to specified merchant transactions above that threshold. 

The charge belongs to the merchant-payment system, with the government saying customers themselves will not pay it.

The policy question is familiar: who pays, how much and for what kind of transaction? 

The deeper question is harder and more interesting: what price makes a person change the way they spend money?

That question lies at the centre of an economic idea called Marginal Monetary Sacrifice.

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The concept asks how much additional money a person is willing to give up to complete a transaction. 

A buyer purchasing something for ₹2,500, for example, may accept an additional cost and complete the purchase. Someone else may change the payment method, postpone the purchase or abandon it.

The size of the cost tells only part of the........

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