Remittances, ICT and doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa

Simplice Asongu, Nicholas Biekpe and Vanessa Tchamyou ()

Journal of Economic Studies, 2019, vol. 46, issue 1, 35-54

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine how linkages between information and communication technology (ICT) and remittances affect the doing of business. Design/methodology/approach - The focus is on a panel of 49 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries for the period 2000–2012. The empirical evidence is based on the generalized method of moments. Findings - While the authors establish some appealing results in terms of net negative effects on constraints to the doing of business (i.e. time to start a business and time to pay taxes), some positive net effects are also apparent (i.e. number of start-up procedures, time to build a warehouse and time to register a property). The authors also establish ICT penetration thresholds at which the unconditional effect of remittances can be changed from positive to negative, notably: for the number of start-up procedures, an internet level of 9.00 penetration per 100 people is required, while for the time to build a warehouse, a mobile phone penetration level of 32.33 penetration per 100 people is essential. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. Originality/value - To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to assess linkages between ICT, remittances and doing business in SSA.

Keywords: Africa; Development; ICT; Remittances; Doing business; F24; F63; L96; O30; O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Remittances, ICT and Doing Business in Sub-Saharan Africa (2018)
Working Paper: Remittances, ICT and Doing Business in Sub-Saharan Africa (2018)
Working Paper: Remittances, ICT and Doing Business in Sub-Saharan Africa (2018)
Working Paper: Remittances, ICT and Doing Business in Sub-Saharan Africa (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jespps:jes-06-2017-0146

DOI: 10.1108/JES-06-2017-0146

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