Saving Lives through Technology : Mobile Phones and Infant Mortality
Digital technologies can expand access to health services to underserved populations. This paper leverages mobile network expansion and survey data spanning two decades to study the impact of access to mobile phones on infant mortality in Africa. U...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/394931647888314925/Saving-Lives-through-Technology-Mobile-Phones-and-Infant-Mortality http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37200 |
| Summary: | Digital technologies can expand
access to health services to underserved populations. This
paper leverages mobile network expansion and survey data
spanning two decades to study the impact of access to mobile
phones on infant mortality in Africa. Using plausibly
exogenous variations in lightning intensity and
(sub)regional convergence in mobile penetration as
instrumental variables for mobile network expansion, the
analysis finds that mobile phones significantly reduce
infant mortality. A 10 percentage point increase in mobile
coverage is associated with a 0.45 percentage point
reduction in infant mortality. Improvements in health
knowledge and behavior and health care utilization appear to
be plausible channels. |
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