Access to mobile phones and the wellbeing of non-farm enterprise households: Evidence from Ghana. (August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Danquah, Michael; Iddrisu, Abdul Malik
• Is Part Of: Technology in society. Volume 54(2018)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 9
• Publication Date: 2018-08
• Subjects: Africa -- Ghana -- Mobile phones -- Non-farm enterprises -- Wellbeing; Technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 303.483
• DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2018.01.012
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0160-791X

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, we use the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 6) and robust methods to examine the access to mobile phones and wellbeing of non-farm enterprise households in Ghana. The findings of the study show that having access to a mobile phone improves the chances of being non-poor. With regards to the transmission channel, the results show that access to mobile phones is positive and significantly related with the revenues of nonfarm enterprises, suggesting that having mobile phones may expedite the business activities of nonfarm enterprises and thus leads to higher sales revenues. Finally, the locality disaggregated estimations of the effect of access to mobile phones on non-farm household wellbeing indicate that the significant positive effect of access to mobile phones on household wellbeing seems to be the case only among rural nonfarm enterprise households with urban nonfarm enterprise households' wellbeing not reliant on their access to mobile phones. However, having access to mobile phones improves the sales revenue of nonfarm enterprises in both rural and urban areas. Highlights: Having access to a mobile phone improves the chances of being non-poor in non-farm enterprise households in Ghana. Access to mobile phones is significantly related to revenues of nonfarm enterprises. This suggest that having mobile phones may expedite the business activities of nonfarm enterprises. The effect of access to mobile phones on wellbeing is significantly positive only among rural nonfarm enterprise households.