Mobile Phone Ownership and Welfare: Evidence from South Africa’s Household Survey

October 30, 2020

Preview Citation

Format: Chicago

Ken Miyajima. Mobile Phone Ownership and Welfare: Evidence from South Africa’s Household Survey, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2020) accessed December 25, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Digitalization is accelerating as countries fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, the impact of mobile phone ownership on welfare (represented by consumption) is estimated for South Africa using rich household survey data in a panel format, the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) with 5 waves spanning 2008–17. The literature argues mobile phone ownership facilitates greater and more affordable access to information and generate welfare gains. We attempt to disentangle the two-way relationship between consumption and mobile phone ownership, which is inherently difficult, and add to the literature by investigating distributional effects. Estimated results suggest that consumption of mobile phone owners tends to be 10–20 percent above that of non-owners. Benefits tend to accrue more on individuals with relatively low levels of consumption, potentially as a greater number of new users, likely with higher marginal positive effects on consumption, and a faster rate of user cost reduction help reap greater gains.

Subject: Consumption, Econometric analysis, Education, Estimation techniques, Income, Mobile banking, National accounts, Technology

Keywords: Africa, Consumption, Consumption decile, Decile dummy, Digitalization, Estimation techniques, Household Survey, Income, Instrumental Variable Approach, Level consumption, Mobile banking, Mobile Phone, NIDS data, South Africa, System GMM, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

28
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2020/222
Stock No:

WPIEA2020222
ISBN:

9781513558967
ISSN:

1018-5941

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