Center on Pacific Economies Research Grant Recipient
Craig McIntosh
Assistant Professor of Economics
Project Locations: Uganda and Cameroon
Project Description:
Professor McIntosh and Michael Futch, a Ph.D. student in the economics department at UC San Diego, are using their research grant to support a project with the Grameen Technology Center and MTN, Africa’s major cellphone company, that seeks to understand the impact of introducing mobile telephony into rural Africa. A great deal of enthusiasm and anecdotal evidence has accompanied efforts to close the ‘digital divide’ by distributing IT more widely through the developing world. In many cases utilization has lagged expectations, however, and quantitative evidence of impact has been almost totally lacking. In Africa in particular, the mobile phone appears unique in being almost universally desired and useful. Mobile phone network coverage on the continent has grown from 10% in 1999 to 60% today. The Village Phone program, also operating in Uganda and Cameroon, uses a car battery and an antenna to allow a mobile phone to get a clear signal far beyond the reach of the normal network. The introduction of a Village Phone provides a unique ability to observe the transformation of a community as its farmers and businesspeople gain access to outside information. Professor McIntosh completed a set of baseline surveys in 2006 of 400 communities that did not have Village Phones, and is now running a followup survey that will be used to measure the changes that have taken place with the introduction of mobile telephony.
