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on Payment Systems and Financial Technology |
| By: | Sekabira, Haruna; Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | Through various applications, the importance of mobile technologies has been more evident in developing economies since the late 1990s. One such application has been mobile money services, where mobile network subscribers transfer money electronically via a mobile phone, thus eliminating some of the developing countries’ persistent barriers to financial services for instance financial market exclusion and remoteness. Despite mobile technologies’ anticipated potential towards rural socio-economic development, there is however yet a very limited empirical focus on their welfare impacts. Using regression models and a panel data of 874 observations collected from predominantly coffee farmers in central Uganda, we argue that mobile money use has a positive impact on several income-enhancing mechanisms along the income pathway to smallholder household welfare. Compared to non-users, rural households using mobile money sell more of their coffee produce in a high-value form as shelled beans, receive higher prices for these shelled beans, and earn more off-farm income, with or without remittances. All these mechanisms enhance incomes, thus welfare. |
| Keywords: | Marketing, Production Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaae16:246310&r=pay |
| By: | Asongu, Simplice; Boateng, Agyenim; Akamavi, Raphael |
| Abstract: | A recent World Bank report reveals that poverty has been decreasing in all regions of the world with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as more than 45% of countries in the sub-region are off-track from achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) extreme poverty target. This paper investigates the effects of mobile phone technology, knowledge creation and diffusion on inclusive human development in 49 SSA countries for the period 2000-2012 using Tobit model. The study finds that mobile phone penetration in SSA is pivotal to sustainable and inclusive human development irrespective of the country’s level of income, legal origins, religious orientation and the state of the nation. However, the pupil-teacher ratio exerts a negative influence on inclusive human development. The net effects of interactions between the mobile phone and knowledge diffusion variables are positive. |
| Keywords: | Mobile phones; inclusive human development; Africa |
| JEL: | G20 I10 I32 O40 O55 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75046&r=pay |
| By: | Asongu, Simplice A; Le Roux, Sara |
| Abstract: | This study assesses if increasing information and communication technology (ICT) enhances inclusive human development in a sample of 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000-2012. The empirical evidence present in this study, is based on instrumental variable Tobit regressions, in order to account for simultaneity and the limited range in the dependent variable. In the interest of increasing room for policy implications and controlling for the unobserved heterogeneity, the analysis is decomposed into the fundamental characteristics that human development based on: income levels, legal origins, religious dominations, political stability, landlockedness and resource-wealth. Our findings show that policies designed to boost ICT (mobile phone, internet, telephone) penetration will increase inclusive development in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. The degree of positive responsiveness of inclusive development to ICT varies across fundamental characteristics of human development and ICT dynamics. The study has substantial policy relevance because the adoption and/or penetration rate of ICT can be influenced by policy to achieve inclusive development outcomes. Further policy implications are also discussed. |
| Keywords: | ICT; Inclusive human development; Africa |
| JEL: | G20 I10 I32 O40 O55 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75048&r=pay |
| By: | Jörn Altmann (Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea); Emanuele Carlini (ISTI, CNR, Pisa, Italy); Massimo Coppola (ISTI, CNR, Pisa, Italy); Patrizio Dazzi (ISTI, CNR, Pisa, Italy); Ana Juan Ferrer (Atos Origin, Barcelona, Spain); Netsanet Haile (Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea); Young-Woo Jung (ETRI, Daejeon, Korea); Dong-Jae Kang (ETRI, Daejeon, Korea); Iain-James Marshall (Amenesik, Paris, France); Konstantinos Tserpes (Harokopio University, Athens, Greece); Theodora Varvarigou (National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece) |
| Abstract: | Although mobile devices became more powerful and sophisticated over the last decade, enabling rich-multimedia services, resource constraints still hinder today’s mobile applications from reaching their potential. To address this, this work aims at delivering an architecture that supports changing needs of mobile users through an end-to-end approach. The outcomes are sets of requirements, each representing a set of prioritized platform functionalities, and the BASMATI architecture that integrates the sets. |
| Keywords: | Brokerage, Business-Aware Cloud Federation, Architecture, Off-loading, Mobility. |
| JEL: | L24 L86 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:snv:dp2009:2016132&r=pay |
| By: | Eckhardt Bode (Kiel Institute for the World Economy); Stephan Brunow (Institute for Employment Research, Nürnberg); Ingrid Ott (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Kiel Institute for the World Economy); Alina Sorgner (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | We present empirical evidence suggesting that technological progress in the digital age will be biased not only with respect to skills acquired through education but also with respect to noncognitive skills (personality). We measure the direction of technological change by estimated future digitalization probabilities of occupations, and noncognitive skills by the Big Five personality traits from several German worker surveys. Even though we control extensively for education and experience, we find that workers characterized by strong openness and emotional stability tend to be less susceptible to digitalization. Traditional indicators of human capital thus measure workers' skill endowments only imperfectly. |
| Keywords: | Worker personality, Noncognitive skills, Digital transformation, Direction of technical change, Germany |
| JEL: | C25 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2016–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2016-020&r=pay |
| By: | Lilie Chouliaraki |
| JEL: | L91 L96 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:57217&r=pay |
| By: | Faure, Salomon; Gersbach, Hans |
| Abstract: | We study money creation and destruction in today's monetary architecture and examine the impact of monetary policy and capital regulation in a general equilibrium setting. There are two types of money created and destructed: bank deposits, when banks grant loans to firms or to other banks and central bank money, when the central bank grants loans to private banks. We show that equilibria yield the first-best level of money creation and lending when prices are flexible, regardless of the monetary policy or capital regulation. When prices are rigid, we identify the circumstances in which money creation is excessive or breaks down and the ones in which an adequate combination of monetary policy and capital regulation can restore effciency. |
| Keywords: | money creation,bank deposits,capital regulation,zero lower bound,monetary policy,price rigidities |
| JEL: | D50 E4 E5 G21 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cfswop:555&r=pay |
| By: | Belleflamme, Paul; Peitz, Martin |
| Abstract: | In many markets, user benefits depend on participation and usage decisions of other users giving rise to network effects. Intermediaries manage these network effects and thus act as platforms that bring users together. This paper reviews key findings from the literature on network effects and two-sided platforms. It lays out the basic models of monopoly platforms and platform competition, and elaborates on some routes taken by recent research. |
| Keywords: | Network effects , digital platforms , two-sided markets , tipping , platform competition , intermediation , pricing , imperfect competition |
| JEL: | D43 L13 L86 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnh:wpaper:41306&r=pay |