Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage

This paper investigates the determinants of disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. It uses a spatially disaggregated probit for over 990,000 grid cells with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation. Determinants include potential market size (population); cost factor...

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Main Authors:	Buys, Piet, Dasgupta, Susmita, Thomas, Timothy S., Wheeler, David
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Antitrust Issues and Policies: General L400 Telecommunications L960 Industrialization Manufacturing and Service Industries Choice of Technology O140
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5477

id	okr-10986-5477
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-54772021-04-23T14:02:22Z Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage Buys, Piet Dasgupta, Susmita Thomas, Timothy S. Wheeler, David Antitrust Issues and Policies: General L400 Telecommunications L960 Industrialization Manufacturing and Service Industries Choice of Technology O140 This paper investigates the determinants of disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. It uses a spatially disaggregated probit for over 990,000 grid cells with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation. Determinants include potential market size (population); cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, and distance from the nearest large city); and competition policy. Estimates indicate significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy could lead to huge improvements in cell phone area coverage, and to an overall coverage increase of nearly 100%. 2012-03-30T07:33:01Z 2012-03-30T07:33:01Z 2009 Journal Article World Development 0305750X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5477 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Antitrust Issues and Policies: General L400 Telecommunications L960 Industrialization Manufacturing and Service Industries Choice of Technology O140
spellingShingle	Antitrust Issues and Policies: General L400 Telecommunications L960 Industrialization Manufacturing and Service Industries Choice of Technology O140 Buys, Piet Dasgupta, Susmita Thomas, Timothy S. Wheeler, David Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage
geographic_facet	Africa
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	This paper investigates the determinants of disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. It uses a spatially disaggregated probit for over 990,000 grid cells with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation. Determinants include potential market size (population); cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, and distance from the nearest large city); and competition policy. Estimates indicate significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy could lead to huge improvements in cell phone area coverage, and to an overall coverage increase of nearly 100%.
format	Journal Article
author	Buys, Piet Dasgupta, Susmita Thomas, Timothy S. Wheeler, David
author_facet	Buys, Piet Dasgupta, Susmita Thomas, Timothy S. Wheeler, David
author_sort	Buys, Piet
title	Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage
title_short	Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage
title_full	Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage
title_fullStr	Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage
title_full_unstemmed	Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage
title_sort	determinants of a digital divide in sub-saharan africa : a spatial econometric analysis of cell phone coverage
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5477
_version_	1764395191169449984

Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage

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