Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger

Business enterprises and non-agricultural startups in rural economies play crucial roles in ending the vicious cycle of poverty. The propagation of business enterprises are, however, subject to a high degree of institutional frictions and vacuums e...

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Main Authors:	Annan, Francis, Sanoh, Aly
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	INFRASTRUCTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ICT INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY RURAL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT REGULATION MOBILE INFRASTRUCTURE
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/186391513608326487/Mobile-infrastructure-and-rural-business-enterprises-evidence-from-sim-registration-mandate-in-Niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29069

id	okr-10986-29069
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-290692021-06-08T14:42:47Z Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger Annan, Francis Sanoh, Aly INFRASTRUCTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ICT INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY RURAL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT REGULATION MOBILE INFRASTRUCTURE Business enterprises and non-agricultural startups in rural economies play crucial roles in ending the vicious cycle of poverty. The propagation of business enterprises are, however, subject to a high degree of institutional frictions and vacuums e.g., information; but mobile infrastructure which has the externality of flowing information can help overcome most of these vacuums through reduced fixed costs, lower cost of information or search, and outreach to a broader customer base. This paper studies the effects of mobile infrastructure ("mobile use activity") on propagation of rural business enterprises in Niger. Instrumental variable estimates exploit the exogenous introduction of the 2013 national mandatory SIM registration reform which provides a quasi-experimental set-up for mobile use and activity. The mandate deactivated about one-third of all existing prepaid SIMs and led to a remarkable decline in mobile use activity. The results suggest that there is economically substantial effect of mobile infrastructure on propagation of business enterprises. Moving a household with mobile use activity to a no mobile use activity environment due to SIM deactivation results in roughly 33.1 percent points decline in the likelihood of engaging in non-agricultural business enterprises. Most of this effect come from three major sources: households' ownership of a business service or center; ownership of small income generating activities; and involvement in the transformation of agricultural products. There is suggestive evidence that the reform's impact is disproportionately larger for women. With the expansion of mandatory SIM registration reforms in developing countries, the findings have extended implications in these contexts. 2017-12-21T16:45:48Z 2017-12-21T16:45:48Z 2017-12 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/186391513608326487/Mobile-infrastructure-and-rural-business-enterprises-evidence-from-sim-registration-mandate-in-Niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29069 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8278 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Niger
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	INFRASTRUCTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ICT INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY RURAL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT REGULATION MOBILE INFRASTRUCTURE
spellingShingle	INFRASTRUCTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ICT INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY RURAL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT REGULATION MOBILE INFRASTRUCTURE Annan, Francis Sanoh, Aly Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger
geographic_facet	Africa Niger
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8278
description	Business enterprises and non-agricultural startups in rural economies play crucial roles in ending the vicious cycle of poverty. The propagation of business enterprises are, however, subject to a high degree of institutional frictions and vacuums e.g., information; but mobile infrastructure which has the externality of flowing information can help overcome most of these vacuums through reduced fixed costs, lower cost of information or search, and outreach to a broader customer base. This paper studies the effects of mobile infrastructure ("mobile use activity") on propagation of rural business enterprises in Niger. Instrumental variable estimates exploit the exogenous introduction of the 2013 national mandatory SIM registration reform which provides a quasi-experimental set-up for mobile use and activity. The mandate deactivated about one-third of all existing prepaid SIMs and led to a remarkable decline in mobile use activity. The results suggest that there is economically substantial effect of mobile infrastructure on propagation of business enterprises. Moving a household with mobile use activity to a no mobile use activity environment due to SIM deactivation results in roughly 33.1 percent points decline in the likelihood of engaging in non-agricultural business enterprises. Most of this effect come from three major sources: households' ownership of a business service or center; ownership of small income generating activities; and involvement in the transformation of agricultural products. There is suggestive evidence that the reform's impact is disproportionately larger for women. With the expansion of mandatory SIM registration reforms in developing countries, the findings have extended implications in these contexts.
format	Working Paper
author	Annan, Francis Sanoh, Aly
author_facet	Annan, Francis Sanoh, Aly
author_sort	Annan, Francis
title	Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger
title_short	Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger
title_full	Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger
title_fullStr	Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger
title_full_unstemmed	Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger
title_sort	mobile infrastructure and rural business enterprises : evidence from sim registration mandate in niger
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/186391513608326487/Mobile-infrastructure-and-rural-business-enterprises-evidence-from-sim-registration-mandate-in-Niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29069
_version_	1764468417158447104

Mobile Infrastructure and Rural Business Enterprises : Evidence from SIM Registration Mandate in Niger

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