Does Digital Divide or Provide? The Impact of Cell Phones on Grain Markets in Niger

Report

A Center for Global Development working paper (No. 154, 2008) by Jenny Aker on the arrival of mobile phone coverage in Niger. Using data from 42 grain markets, 395 traders and 205 farmers, it finds that cell phones reduced grain price dispersion across markets by about 20 per cent (around 4.4 CFA francs per kilogram), cut intra-annual price variation by 12 per cent and lowered average consumer prices by 3.5 per cent. The paper examines whether mobile phones help to bridge, or deepen, the digital divide for rural communities that depend on grain markets.