8 research outputs found
Is Information Diffusion a Threat to Market Power for Financial Access? Insights from the African Banking Industry
This study assesses how information diffusion dampens the adverse effect of market power on the price and quantity of loans provided by a panel of 162 banks from 39 African countries for the period 2001–2011. First, from the Generalised Method of Moments results, a mobile phone penetration rate of 54.29, rising to 57 per 100 people are predicted to neutralise the adverse effect of market power on the average loan price and quantity respectively. Second, from the Quantile Regressions, mobile phone penetration rates of 56.20, 52.04 and 42.76 per 100 people is needed to nullify the negative effect of market power on loan quantity at the 10th decile, 25th quartile and 90th decile respectively. Third, a considerably lower internet penetration rate of 9.49 per 100 people is required to counteract the negative impact of market power on loan quantity at the 90th decile. Policy implications are discussed
The Comparative Economics of ICT, Environmental Degradation and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
This study examines how information and communication technology (ICT) could be employed to dampen the potentially damaging effects of environmental degradation in order to promote inclusive human development in a panel of 44 Sub-Saharan African countries. ICT is captured with internet and mobile phone penetration rates whereas environmental degradation is measured in terms of CO2 emissions per capita and CO2 intensity. The empirical evidence is based on Fixed Effects and Tobit regressions using data from 2000-2012. In order to increase the policy relevance of this study, the dataset is decomposed into fundamental characteristics of inclusive development and environmental degradation based on income levels (Low income versus (vs.) Middle income); legal origins (English Common law vs. French Civil law); religious domination (Christianity vs. Islam); openness to sea (Landlocked vs. Coastal); resource-wealth (Oil-rich vs. Oil-poor) and political stability (Stable vs. Unstable).Baseline findings broadly show that improvement in both of measures of ICT would significantly diminish the possibly harmful effect of CO2 emissions on inclusive human development. When the analysis is extended with the abovementioned fundamental characteristics, we observe that the moderating influence of both our ICT variables on CO2 emissions is higher in the group of English Common law, Middle income and Oil-wealthy countries than in the French Civil law, Low income countries and Oil-poor countries respectively. Theoretical and practical policy implications are discussed
Basic Formal Education Quality, Information Technology and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
This study assesses the relevance of basic formal education in information technology for inclusive human development in 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000-2012. The question it aims to answer is the following: what is the relevance of basic formal education in the effect of mobile phone penetration on inclusive human development in sub-Saharan Africa when initial levels of inclusive human development are taken into account? The empirical evidence is based on instrumental quantile regressions. Poor primary education dampens the positive effect of mobile phone penetration on inclusive human development. This main finding should be understood in the perspective that, the education quality indicator represents a policy syndrome because of the way it is computed, notably: the ratio of pupils to teachers. Hence, an increasing ratio indicates decreasing quality of education. It follows that decreasing quality of education dampens the positive effect of mobile phone on inclusive development. This tendency is consistent throughout the conditional distribution of inclusive human development. Policy implications for sustainable development are discussed