Mobile Phones and Economic Development: Evidence from the Fishing Industry in India

By Reuben Abraham. International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, 2006

373 citations recorded by the source corpus.

There is considerable speculation about the correlation between investments in telecommunications and economic development. Mobile phones, by virtue of their role as carriers and conduits of information, ought to lessen the information asymmetries in markets, thereby making rural and undeveloped markets more efficient. This research tests this assumption using a case-study from India, where the fishing community in the south-western state of Kerala has adopted mobile phones in large numbers. We find that with the wide-spread use of mobile phones, markets become more efficient as risk and uncertainty are reduced; there is greater market integration; there are gains in productivity and in the Marshallian surplus (sum of consumer and producer surplus); and price dispersion and price fluctuations are reduced. The potential efficiencies are, however, subject to easy access to capital, without which the market remains less efficient than it could be. Finally, the quality of life of the fishermen improves as they feel less isolated, and less at risk in times of emergencies

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Media Technology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3216c4e7ae991ab00863f813c31be8ff662757de

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

In Media Technology

Citations in the corpus

Socio-economic Factors Affecting Adoption of Modern Information and Communication Technology by Farmers in India: Analysis Using Multivariate Probit Model (2016, background): “These results can be supported from some earlier studies which had shown that rich and large farmers are able to benefit more from the information delivered through mobile phones (Jensen 2007; Abraham 2007; Mittal, Gandhi, and Tripathi 2010).”
Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing World: A Review of the Literature (2008, background): “Abraham (2006) too found clear benefits, mostly around reduced price volatility and increased responsiveness, to these fishing communities.”
How mobile phones contribute to growth of small farmers? Evidence from India (2012, background): “These results are contrary to other literature on these issues, which show a potential impact on price realization and reduction of wastage (JENSEN, 2007; ABRAHAM, 2007; MITTAL et al., 2010; AKER, 2008; GOYAL, 2010).”
A review of evidence on mobile use by micro and small enterprises in developing countries (2010, background): “Clearly, fishermen take advantage of wireless telecommunications (Abraham, 2007; Jensen, 2007) to place and receive calls while on the water.”
Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa (2010, background): “…mobile phones on supply chain management in Africa, qualitative research in South Africa and Egypt suggests that mobile phones were associated with increased profi ts, signifi cant time savings, and improved communication with suppliers for small-scale fi rms (Samuel, Shah, and Handingham, 2005).”