The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality

Simplice Asongu

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: 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. 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. The findings suggest that mobile penetration is pro-poor, as it has a positive income equality effect. ‘Mobile phone’-oriented poverty reduction channels are discussed.

Keywords: Mobile Phones; Shadow Economy; Poverty; Inequality; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E00 G20 I30 L9 L96 O33 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-08-31, Revised 2013-04-08
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 (14)

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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:pra:mprapa:46041

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