Remittances, ICT and Doing Business in Sub-Saharan Africa

Simplice Asongu, Nicholas Biekpe and Vanessa Tchamyou ()

No 18/010, Research Africa Network Working Papers from Research Africa Network (RAN)

Abstract: This study examines how linkages between information and communication technology (ICT) and remittances affect the doing of business. The focus is on a panel of 49 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2000-2012. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments. While we 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). We also establish ICT penetration thresholds at which the unconditional effect of remittances can be changed from positive to negative, notably: (i) for the number of start-up procedures, an internet level of 9.00 penetration per 100 people is required while (ii) 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. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess linkages between ICT, remittances and doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Remittances; ICT; Doing business; Development; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F24 F63 L96 O30 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2018-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Forthcoming: Journal of Economic Studies

Downloads: (external link)
http://publications.resanet.org/RePEc/abh/abh-wpap ... b-Saharan-Africa.pdf Revised version, 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Remittances, ICT and doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa (2019)
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)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:abh:wpaper:18/010

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Research Africa Network Working Papers from Research Africa Network (RAN)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Anutechia Asongu Simplice ().