The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality

Simplice Asongu

No 13/021, Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. from African Governance and Development Institute.

Abstract: Purpose – The aim of this paper is to complement theoretical and qualitative literature with empirical evidence on the income-redistributive effect of mobile phone penetration in 52 African countries. Design/methodology/approach – Robust Ordinary Least Squares and Two Stage Least Squares empirical strategies are employed. Findings – The findings suggest that mobile penetration is pro-poor, as it has a positive income equality effect. Social implications – ‘Mobile phone’-oriented poverty reduction channels are discussed. Originality/value – It deviates from mainstream country-specific and microeconomic survey-based approaches in the literature and provides the first macroeconomic assessment of the ‘mobile phone’-inequality nexus.

Keywords: Mobile Phones; Shadow Economy; Poverty; Inequality; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E00 G20 I30 L96 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18
Date: 2013-04-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-iue
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Forthcoming in the International Journal of Social Economics

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/The-im ... rican-inequality.pdf Revised version, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality (2015)
Working Paper: The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:agd:wpaper:13/021

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