October 27, 2008
Cell phones are transforming markets in low-income countries, especially in rural sub-Saharan Africa. In this CGD Note, post-doctoral fellow Jenny Aker documents the positive impact of cell phones in Niger, which the UN ranks as the world’s poorest country. Aker finds that phones are associated on average with a 20-percent reduction in grain price differences across markets--an effect that grows as cell phone coverage expands.