Abstract
The main purpose of this article is to assess the welfare effects of situations in which either mobile phone devices or SIM cards (or both) are not owned by relatively poor inhabitants of African countries. The task is pursued in a sequential analytical framework where effects at different stages of the process influence the welfare impact at later stages. Much of the analysis is conducted in different institutional circumstances from those found in the West (notably sharing and renting). Perhaps the main result of the analysis—backed by ample empirical evidence—is that the fewer are the alternatives to mobile phones as forms of communication (e.g., public transport), the greater tend to be the gains from this technology. In the particular case of leapfrogging, the fewer are fixed-line phones, the more do mobiles yield gains to poor users, whether these be individuals or actual countries. It is thus the context in addition to the technology that determines the differential welfare gains.
Highlights
The main purpose of this article is to assess the welfare effects of situations in which either mobile phone devices or SIM cards are not owned by relatively poor inhabitants of African countries
“We find significant effects of cell phone penetration on economic growth but lower than that found for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, dispelling the convergence hypothesis.” (p. 25)
“We find that mobile cellular phone expansion is an important determinant of the rate of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa
Summary
The main purpose of this article is to assess the welfare effects of situations in which either mobile phone devices or SIM cards (or both) are not owned by relatively poor inhabitants of African countries. An article appeared which sought to reconcile the available concepts and numbers that bore on the status of mobile phones in Africa (James & Versteeg, 2007). It distinguished, for example, between owning and nonowning users; between access and adoption; and between participation and use. I am at pains to acknowledge that the traditional Western mode of measuring mobile subscribers does not survive close analytical or empirical scrutiny For what it measures are the number of SIM card subscribers rather than the number of people with subscriptions (it is the latter, after all, that is important for welfare purposes). For example, can be used in the mobile phones of family and friends (work on Ethiopia [see discussion below] reveals an active market for renting SIM cards)
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