IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v30y2026i2p1317-1332.html

Mobile Banking, Agricultural Productivity and Welfare: Household Panel Data Evidence From West Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Arouna Kouandou

Abstract

Limited access to finance and savings is widely recognized as a major constraint to rural development in most sub‐Saharan African countries. The transformative potential of digital finance for improving the livelihoods of the poor is a subject of growing interest among economists and development practitioners. This paper investigates the relationship between the use of mobile banking services, agricultural productivity, and household welfare using detailed micro‐level panel data from Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea‐Bissau, and Togo. Employing a comprehensive identification strategy, our findings indicate that mobile banking use significantly enhances both productivity and welfare outcomes for smallholder farmers. Specifically, mobile banking is associated with approximately 10% higher agricultural productivity, 4% higher per capita food consumption expenditure, and 12% higher per capita non‐food consumption expenditure. These results underscore the importance of expanding access to mobile financial services as a lever for promoting rural development.

Suggested Citation

  • Arouna Kouandou, 2026. "Mobile Banking, Agricultural Productivity and Welfare: Household Panel Data Evidence From West Africa," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1317-1332, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:30:y:2026:i:2:p:1317-1332
    DOI: 10.1111/rode.70056
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.70056
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rode.70056?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:30:y:2026:i:2:p:1317-1332. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.