Moving Beyond the Small Talk - The impact of mobile phones on economics performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract: This thesis is an addition to the growing body of economic research centred on the rapid diffusion of mobile phones in the developing world. The aim is to isolate and quantify the economic impact in terms of GDP per capita growth that is associated with the presence of mobile phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. A dataset containing panel data for the countries in the region is created and used to estimate a fixed effects model, endogenising their average annual growth rates. A positive impact is found and calculated to about 0.2 percent of annual growth for an increase of 10 mobile phones per 100 people. In the final section, this result is analysed in terms of elements which are potentially overestimated or underestimated with respect to reality. Some areas of general uncertainty surrounding the results are also highlighted and discussed. Lastly, policy implications derived from the analysis are presented.