Open AccessPanel evidence from rural Uganda on mobile money, risk sharing, and educational investment
Author(s) -
Daniel Alves Abba
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
rechenschaftsberichte und verkaufsprospekt - deutsche gesellschaft für wertpapiersparen mbh
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0945-2753
DOI - 10.53384/inbe.101370943.2779.1862003510
Subject(s) - mobile payment , remittance , investment (military) , business , shock (circulatory) , communication source , service (business) , monetary economics , economics , marketing , finance , economic growth , computer science , telecommunications , medicine , politics , political science , law , payment
We investigate the influence of the rapidly developing mobile banking service "mobile money" on rural households' capacity to smooth their investment in education following a negative shock. We find that a negative shock reduces per school-age kid educational spending by 9.3 percentage points in families that do not utilize mobile money but by 8.3 percentage points in homes that have used mobile money. The underlying process is a rise in remittance receipts and sender variety as a result of the lower transaction costs afforded by mobile money. We demonstrate that our findings are resistant to alternative processes. We utilize the extension of the mobile money agent network as an exogenous variable in mobile money access.