Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage

Piet Buys, Susmita Dasgupta, Timothy S. Thomas and David Wheeler

World Development, 2009, vol. 37, issue 9, pages 1494-1505

Abstract: Summary This paper investigates the determinants of disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. It uses a spatially disaggregated probit for over 990,000 grid cells with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation. Determinants include potential market size (population); cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, and distance from the nearest large city); and competition policy. Estimates indicate significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy could lead to huge improvements in cell phone area coverage, and to an overall coverage increase of nearly 100%.

Keywords: Sub-Saharan; Africa; (SSA); GSM; cell; phone; spatial; probit; Markov; Chain; Monte; Carlo; (MCMC); competition; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:37:y:2009:i:9:p:1494-1505

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