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Mobile phones and Mozambique farmers: Less asymmetric information and more trader competition?

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  • Zant, Wouter

Abstract

We measure how the introduction of mobile phones in Mozambique affected unit values of household maize sales, maize producer prices and traders’ margins. Our estimations are based on both representative household surveys for the years 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008, and weekly producer and market prices of white maize grain from July 1997 to December 2009 for 15 major producer markets. We find household sales unit values and producer price decreases, and traders’ margin increases between 14% and 22%, indicating benefits for traders. Next, we investigate heterogeneity of impacts in order to explore underlying mechanisms: impacts on margins decrease with population density and network density, and increase with gains from long-distance trade. Impacts on household selling prices are not significantly correlated with educational attainment, but the fall in prices is less with larger household wealth. Impacts on household selling prices and producer prices also become less negative over time, suggesting delayed adoption by farmers. Our results are robust to various threats.

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  • Zant, Wouter, 2024. "Mobile phones and Mozambique farmers: Less asymmetric information and more trader competition?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:180:y:2024:i:c:s0305750x24000445
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106574
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Search costs; Asymmetric information; Mobile phones; Agricultural markets; Maize prices; Mozambique; Sub-Sahara Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • Q11 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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