Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa

Mobile phone coverage has expanded considerably throughout the developing world, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa. Existing evidence suggests that increased access to information technology has improved agricultural market efficiency for consumer markets and certain commodities, but there is l...

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Main Authors:	Aker, Jenny C., Fafchamps, Marcel
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2017
Subjects:	commodities mobile phone producer markets remote markets information remote access producer price dispersion price variation market efficiency information technology market behavior
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25842

id	okr-10986-25842
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-258422021-04-23T14:04:32Z Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa Aker, Jenny C. Fafchamps, Marcel commodities mobile phone producer markets remote markets information remote access producer price dispersion price variation market efficiency information technology market behavior Mobile phone coverage has expanded considerably throughout the developing world, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa. Existing evidence suggests that increased access to information technology has improved agricultural market efficiency for consumer markets and certain commodities, but there is less evidence of its impact on producer markets. Building on the work of Aker (2010), we estimate the impact of mobile phone coverage on producer price dispersion for three commodities in Niger. Our results suggest that mobile phone coverage reduces spatial producer price dispersion by 6 percent for cowpea, a semi-perishable commodity. These effects are strongest for remote markets and during certain periods of the year. The introduction of mobile phone coverage has no effect on producer price dispersion for millet and sorghum, two staple grains that are less perishable and are commonly stored by farmers. There are no impacts of mobile phone coverage on producer price levels, but mobile phone coverage is associated with a reduction in the intra-annual price variation for cowpea. 2017-01-11T22:01:20Z 2017-01-11T22:01:20Z 2015-07 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25842 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	commodities mobile phone producer markets remote markets information remote access producer price dispersion price variation market efficiency information technology market behavior
spellingShingle	commodities mobile phone producer markets remote markets information remote access producer price dispersion price variation market efficiency information technology market behavior Aker, Jenny C. Fafchamps, Marcel Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa
geographic_facet	Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
description	Mobile phone coverage has expanded considerably throughout the developing world, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa. Existing evidence suggests that increased access to information technology has improved agricultural market efficiency for consumer markets and certain commodities, but there is less evidence of its impact on producer markets. Building on the work of Aker (2010), we estimate the impact of mobile phone coverage on producer price dispersion for three commodities in Niger. Our results suggest that mobile phone coverage reduces spatial producer price dispersion by 6 percent for cowpea, a semi-perishable commodity. These effects are strongest for remote markets and during certain periods of the year. The introduction of mobile phone coverage has no effect on producer price dispersion for millet and sorghum, two staple grains that are less perishable and are commonly stored by farmers. There are no impacts of mobile phone coverage on producer price levels, but mobile phone coverage is associated with a reduction in the intra-annual price variation for cowpea.
format	Journal Article
author	Aker, Jenny C. Fafchamps, Marcel
author_facet	Aker, Jenny C. Fafchamps, Marcel
author_sort	Aker, Jenny C.
title	Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa
title_short	Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa
title_full	Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa
title_fullStr	Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa
title_full_unstemmed	Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa
title_sort	mobile phone coverage and producer markets : evidence from west africa
publisher	Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
publishDate	2017
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25842
_version_	1764460288450494464

Mobile Phone Coverage and Producer Markets : Evidence from West Africa

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