Dr. Tobias Pfutze, Associate Professor of Economics, has published (joint with Kalvin Bahia, Pau Castells, Genaro Cruz, Takaaki Masaki, Xavier Pedrós, Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán and Hernán Winkler) in Journal of Development Economics a paper titled “The Welfare Effects of Mobile Broadband Internet: Evidence from Nigeria”. The published version can be accessed here.
Highlights- Coverage by mobile 3G networks in Nigeria reduces poverty and increases both food and non-food consumption.
- It also increases labor force participation, especially for wage employment.
- The estimated increase in employment is large enough to explain the increase in consumption and associated decline in poverty.
- These results are strongest for males, the initially poorer, rural areas, and in the south of the country.