Some good research from the World Bank. Harry African eDevelopment Resource Centre 3rd Floor, Nelleon Place Raphta Road, Westlands PO Box 49475 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Cel +254 725 650044 Land +254 20 4453445 www.africanedevelopment.org <http://www.africanedevelopment.org/> My Blogg <http://egov-notes.blogspot.com/> *********************************************************** March 2008 Capacity Building Opportunities Fiber Optics: 3-6 VSAT Field Engineering: 17-19 GIS 26-28 Book Now, Limited spaces available _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 8:09 PM Subject: eAlert --> WPS 4516. Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage, by Piet Buys, Susmita Dasgupta, Tim Thomas, and David Wheeler (February 2008) <http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=469435&pagePK=641652 36&piPK=64165141&theSitePK=469382> Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage <http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&theSitePK=4 69372&piPK=64165421&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20080212114658> Policy Research Working Paper 4516, Piet Buys, Susmita Dasgupta, Tim Thomas, and David Wheeler (February 2008) <http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2008 /02/12/000158349_20080212114658/Rendered/PDF/wps4516.pdf> Download Working Paper (26 pages) Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent. <http://econ.worldbank.org/programs/trade> Produced by the <http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTPROGRAMS/EX TIE/0,,menuPK:475531~pagePK:64168176~piPK:64168140~theSitePK:475520,00.html> Sustainable Rural and Urban Development ResearchTeam in Development Research Group ( <http://econ.worldbank.org/programs/trade> http://econ.worldbank.org/programs/rural-urban) ________________ This email was sent using the "bcc" function to various system distribution lists. Our apologies to those who receive multiple copies. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD
