IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/agd/wpaper/15-050.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mobile Phones in Conflicts of Financial Intermediation

Author

Listed:
  • Simplice Asongu

    (Yaoundé/Cameroun)

  • Vanessa Tchamyou

    (Yaoundé/Cameroun)

Abstract

To the best our knowledge, in the first empirical macroeconomic examination of the nexus between financial intermediation and mobile phones, Asongu employs two conflicting financial system definitions in the assessment of how mobile phones have stimulated financial development in Africa. Within the framework of the dominant International Monetary Fund’s International Financial Statistics (2008) definition, mobile phones are established to be negatively associated with financial intermediary dynamics of depth, activity and size. Conversely, when the previously neglected informal financial sector is integrated into the conception, definition and measurement of the financial system, mobile phones are positively (negatively) correlated with the informal (formal) financial intermediation sector. The empirical evidence is based on 52 African countries. Causality in the established linkages has been confirmed in subsequent studies by the same author. At least three policy implications derive from the findings. First, the role of informal financial intermediation is increasing to the detriment of formal financial mechanisms. Second, in order to capture the positive effect of mobile phones on finance, it is imperative to integrate the missing informal financial sector component into the IMF definition of the financial system. Third, it is a wake-up call for more scholarly research on: (i) macroeconomic financial development implications of mobile phone penetration and (ii) monetary policy instruments in the face of burgeoning ‘mobile phone’-oriented financial intermediation.

Suggested Citation

  • Simplice Asongu & Vanessa Tchamyou, 2015. "Mobile Phones in Conflicts of Financial Intermediation," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 15/050, African Governance and Development Institute..
    • Handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:15/050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Mobile-Phones-in-Conflicts-of-Financial-Intermediation.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simplice A. Asongu, 2018. "Conditional Determinants of Mobile Phones Penetration and Mobile Banking in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(1), pages 81-135, March.
    2. Simplice A. Asongu, 2014. "Knowledge Economy and Financial Sector Competition in African Countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 333-346, June.
    3. Simplice A. Asongu, 2013. "How has Mobile Phone Penetration Stimulated Financial Development in Africa?," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 7-18, April.
    4. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "Liberalisation and Financial Sector Competition: A Critical Contribution to the Empirics with an African Assessment," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(3), pages 425-451, September.
    5. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "Financial Sector Competition and Knowledge Economy: Evidence from SSA and MENA Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(4), pages 717-748, December.
    6. Thierry PENARD & Nicolas POUSSING & Gabriel ZOMO YEBE & Philémon NSI ELLA, 2012. "Comparing the Determinants of Internet and Cell Phone Use in Africa: Evidence from Gabon," Communications & Strategies, IDATE, Com&Strat dept., vol. 1(86), pages 65-83, 2nd quart.
    7. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 706-716, August.
    8. Jenny C. Aker & Isaac M. Mbiti, 2010. "Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(3), pages 207-232, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chien, Mei-Se & Cheng, Chih-Yang & Kurniawati, Meta Ayu, 2020. "The non-linear relationship between ICT diffusion and financial development," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(9).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simplice A. Asongu, 2014. "Knowledge Economy and Financial Sector Competition in African Countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 333-346, June.
    2. Simplice A. Asongu & Paul N. Acha-Anyi, 2017. "ICT, conflicts in financial intermediation and financial access: evidence of synergy and threshold effects," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 131-168, December.
    3. Asongu, Simplice, 2013. "Mobile banking and mobile phone penetration: which is more pro-poor in Africa?," MPRA Paper 56800, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2019. "ICT, Financial Sector Development and Financial Access," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(2), pages 465-490, June.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu, 2015. "May the Soul of the IFS Financial System Definition RIP in Developing Countries," The International Journal of Economic Behavior - IJEB, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, vol. 5(1), pages 15-30, December.
    6. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2017. "Recent finance advances in information technology for inclusive development: a survey," Research Africa Network Working Papers 17/009, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    7. Simplice Asongu, 2016. "Reinventing Foreign Aid For Inclusive And Sustainable Development: Kuznets, Piketty And The Great Policy Reversal," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 736-755, September.
    8. Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "The Effects of Mobile Phone Technology, Knowledge Creation and Diffusion on Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(3), pages 1367-1398, September.
    9. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu & Aqsa Aziz, 2018. "Determinants of Mobile Phone Penetration: Panel Threshold Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 81-110, April.
    10. Simplice A. Asongu & Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2019. "Foreign Aid, Education and Lifelong Learning in Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(1), pages 126-146, March.
    11. Asongu, Simplice, 2014. "Reinventing foreign aid for inclusive and sustainable development: a survey," MPRA Paper 65300, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2018. "Recent finance advances in information technology for inclusive development: a systematic review," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 65-93, October.
    13. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "The Mobile Phone, Information Sharing, and Financial Sector Development in Africa: a Quantile Regression Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(3), pages 1234-1269, September.
    14. Simplice A. Asongu & Lieven De Moor, 2015. "Recent advances in finance for inclusive development: a survey," Research Africa Network Working Papers 15/005, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    15. Simplice A. Asongu, 2017. "The Comparative Economics of Knowledge Economy in Africa: Policy Benchmarks, Syndromes, and Implications," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(2), pages 596-637, June.
    16. Asongu, Simplice & Boateng, Agyenim & Akamavi, Raphael, 2016. "Mobile Phone Innovation and Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 75046, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2016. "The role of governance in mobile phones for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 55, pages 1-13.
    18. Simplice Asongu & Jacinta C Nwachukwu, 2015. "The incremental effect of education on corruption: evidence of synergy from lifelong learning," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(4), pages 2288-2308.
    19. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta, 2017. "Comparative human development thresholds for absolute and relative pro-poor mobile banking in developing countries," MPRA Paper 79636, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 706-716, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banking; Mobile Phones; Shadow Economy; Financial Development; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E00 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - General
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:15/050. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Asongu Simplice (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/agdiycm.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.