IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/abh/wpaper/18-022.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Human development thresholds for inclusive mobile banking in developing countries

Author

Listed:
  • Simplice A. Asongu

    (Yaoundé/Cameroon)

  • Nicholas M. Odhiambo

    (Pretoria, South Africa)

Abstract

This study assesses human development thresholds at which mobile banking mitigates poverty and inequality in 93 developing countries for the year 2011. Mobile banking entails: ‘mobile used to pay bills’ and ‘mobile used to receive/send money’, while the modifying policy indicator is the human development index (HDI). The empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions. A summary of the findings shows that with increasing human development: (i) ‘mobiles used to pay bills’ contribute to reducing inequality in countries at the bottom and top ends of the inequality distribution, while (ii) ‘mobiles used to receive/send money’ have an appealing role in promoting inclusive development in all poverty distributions, with the exception of the top-end or 90th decile. The modifying thresholds of the HDI vary from 0.542 to 0.632 and 0.333 to 0.705 in inequality and poverty specifications, respectively. The relevance of the findings is discussed in light of the current transition from Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2018. "Human development thresholds for inclusive mobile banking in developing countries," Research Africa Network Working Papers 18/022, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    • Handle: RePEc:abh:wpaper:18/022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://publications.resanet.org/RePEc/abh/abh-wpaper/Human-development-thresholds-for-inclusive-mobile-banking-in-developing-countries2.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2018
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simplice A. Asongu & Oasis Kodila†Tedika, 2017. "Is Poverty in the African DNA (Gene)?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 85(4), pages 533-552, December.
    2. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2016. "The Mobile Phone in the Diffusion of Knowledge for Institutional Quality in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 133-147.
    3. Vanessa Simen Tchamyou, 2020. "Education, lifelong learning, inequality and financial access: evidence from African countries," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 7-25, January.
    4. Abdul Kabeer Kazi & Muhammad Adeel Mannan, 2013. "Factors affecting adoption of mobile banking in Pakistan: Empirical Evidence," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 2(3), pages 54-61, July.
    5. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2016. "The role of governance in mobile phones for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 55, pages 1-13.
    6. John Anyanwu & Darline Augustine, 2013. "Gender Equality in Employment in Africa: Empirical Analysis and Policy Implications," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 25(4), pages 400-420.
    7. Simplice Asongu & Rangan Gupta, 2016. "Trust and quality of growth: a note," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1854-1867.
    8. Simplice A. Asongu, 2013. "Investment And Inequality In Africa: Which Financial Channels Are Good For The Poor?," The African Finance Journal, Africagrowth Institute, vol. 15(2), pages 43-65.
    9. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2002. "Growth Is Good for the Poor," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 195-225, September.
    10. Simplice A. Asongu, 2013. "How has Mobile Phone Penetration Stimulated Financial Development in Africa?," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 7-18, April.
    11. Montfort Mlachila & René Tapsoba & Sampawende J. A. Tapsoba, 2017. "A Quality of Growth Index for Developing Countries: A Proposal," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(2), pages 675-710, November.
    12. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    13. Simplice A. Asongu, 2013. "Fighting corruption in Africa: do existing corruption‐control levels matter?," International Journal of Development Issues, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 36-52, April.
    14. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2016. "Welfare Spending and Quality of Growth in Developing Countries: A Note on Evidence from Hopefuls, Contenders and Best Performers," MPRA Paper 75047, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Simplice Asongu, 2016. "Reinventing Foreign Aid For Inclusive And Sustainable Development: Kuznets, Piketty And The Great Policy Reversal," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 736-755, September.
    16. Mr. Nikola Spatafora & Rahul Anand & Mr. Saurabh Mishra, 2012. "Structural Transformation and the sophistication of Production," IMF Working Papers 2012/059, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Vanessa Simen Tchamyou, 2017. "The Role of Knowledge Economy in African Business," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(4), pages 1189-1228, December.
    18. Mishra, Vishal & Singh Bisht, Shailendra, 2013. "Mobile banking in a developing economy: A customer-centric model for policy formulation," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 503-514.
    19. Robert Lawrence Afutu-Kotey & Katherine V. Gough & George Owusu, 2017. "Young Entrepreneurs in the Mobile Telephony Sector in Ghana: From Necessities to Aspirations," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 476-491, October.
    20. Brambor, Thomas & Clark, William Roberts & Golder, Matt, 2006. "Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 63-82, January.
    21. Kirui, Oliver K. & Okello, Julius J. & Nyikal, Rose A. & Njiraini, Georgina W., 2013. "Impact of Mobile Phone-Based Money Transfer Services in Agriculture: Evidence from Kenya," Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Humboldt-Universitaat zu Berlin, vol. 52(2), pages 1-22, May.
    22. Thierry PENARD & Nicolas POUSSING & Gabriel ZOMO YEBE & Philémon NSI ELLA, 2012. "Comparing the Determinants of Internet and Cell Phone Use in Africa: Evidence from Gabon," Communications & Strategies, IDATE, Com&Strat dept., vol. 1(86), pages 65-83, 2nd quart.
    23. Warren, Martyn, 0. "The digital vicious cycle: Links between social disadvantage and digital exclusion in rural areas," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6-7), pages 374-388, July.
    24. Billger, Sherrilyn M. & Goel, Rajeev K., 2009. "Do existing corruption levels matter in controlling corruption?: Cross-country quantile regression estimates," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 299-305, November.
    25. Simplice A. Asongu & Lieven De Moor, 2015. "Recent advances in finance for inclusive development: a survey," Research Africa Network Working Papers 15/005, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    26. Simplice Asongu, 2014. "The impact of health worker migration on development dynamics: evidence of wealth effects from Africa," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(2), pages 187-201, March.
    27. Simplice Asongu, 2015. "The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 706-716, August.
    28. David Kelsey & Sara Le Roux, 2017. "Dragon Slaying with Ambiguity: Theory and Experiments," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(1), pages 178-197, February.
    29. Perez, Felipe & Gonzalez, Connie Jones & Aaronson, Xavier, 2011. "Village banking development model: FINCA Costa Rica," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 316-324, March.
    30. Levine, Ross, 2005. "Finance and Growth: Theory and Evidence," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 12, pages 865-934, Elsevier.
    31. Tchamyou, Vanessa S. & Asongu, Simplice A., 2017. "Conditional market timing in the mutual fund industry," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1355-1366.
    32. Mishra, Saurabh & Lundstrom, Susanna & Anand, Rahul, 2011. "Service export sophistication and economic growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5606, The World Bank.
    33. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    34. César Calderón & Luis Servén, 2004. "The Effects of Infrastructure Development on Growth and Income Distribution," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 270, Central Bank of Chile.
    35. Roger Koenker & Kevin F. Hallock, 2001. "Quantile Regression," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 143-156, Fall.
    36. John C. Anyanwu, 2013. "The correlates of poverty in Nigeria and policy implications," African Journal of Economic and Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(1), pages 23-52.
    37. Okada, Keisuke & Samreth, Sovannroeun, 2012. "The effect of foreign aid on corruption: A quantile regression approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 240-243.
    38. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2016. "Mobile Phone Penetration, Mobile Banking and Inclusive Development in Africa," The African Finance Journal, Africagrowth Institute, vol. 18(1), pages 34-52.
    39. Anyanwu, John C., 2014. "Determining the correlates of poverty for inclusive growth in Africa," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 3(1), pages 12-17.
    40. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    41. David Kelsey & Sara le Roux, 2018. "Strategic ambiguity and decision-making: an experimental study," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 387-404, May.
    42. Augustin Kwasi Fosu, 2015. "Growth, Inequality and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Recent Progress in a Global Context," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 44-59, March.
    43. World Bank, 2015. "World Development Indicators 2015," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21634, December.
    44. George Okello Candiya Bongomin & Joseph M Ntayi & John C. Munene & Charles Akol Malinga, 2018. "Mobile Money and Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Moderating Role of Social Networks," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 361-384, July.
    45. Muto, Megumi, 2009. "The impacts of mobile phone coverage expansion and personal networks on migration: evidence from Uganda," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51898, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    46. Dulani Seneviratne & Ms. Yan M Sun, 2013. "Infrastructure and Income Distribution in ASEAN-5: What are the Links?," IMF Working Papers 2013/041, International Monetary Fund.
    47. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz & Mark McGillivray, 2009. "Does Gender Inequality Reduce Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa and Arab Countries?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 21(2), pages 224-242.
    48. Simplice Asongu, 2014. "Financial development dynamic thresholds of financial globalization," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 41(2), pages 166-195, March.
    49. Muto, Megumi & Yamano, Takashi, 2009. "The Impact of Mobile Phone Coverage Expansion on Market Participation: Panel Data Evidence from Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 1887-1896, December.
    50. Fu Lai Tony Yu & Diana S. Kwan, 2015. "African Entrepreneurs and International Coordination in Petty Businesses: The Case of Low-End Mobile Phones Sourcing in Hong Kong," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1-2), pages 66-83, January.
    51. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2003. "Measuring pro-poor growth," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 93-99, January.
    52. Haruna Issahaku & Benjamin Musah Abu & Paul Kwame Nkegbe, 2018. "Does the Use of Mobile Phones by Smallholder Maize Farmers Affect Productivity in Ghana?," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 302-322, July.
    53. Luis Serven & César Calderon, 2004. "The Effects of Infrastructure Development on Growth and income," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 173, Econometric Society.
    54. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2007. "Globalisation and Gender Inequality: Is Africa Different?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 16(2), pages 301-348, March.
    55. Juliet U. Elu & Linda Loubert, 2013. "Earnings Inequality and the Intersectionality of Gender and Ethnicity in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Tanzanian Manufacturing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 289-292, May.
    56. Rahul Anand & Mr. Saurabh Mishra & Mr. Shanaka J Peiris, 2013. "Inclusive Growth: Measurement and Determinants," IMF Working Papers 2013/135, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simplice Asongu & Nicholas Odhiambo, 2017. "Mobile banking usage, quality of growth, inequality and poverty in developing countries," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 17/046, African Governance and Development Institute..
    2. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta, 2017. "Comparative human development thresholds for absolute and relative pro-poor mobile banking in developing countries," MPRA Paper 79636, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Simplice Asongu & Ndemaze Asongu, 2018. "The comparative exploration of mobile money services in inclusive development," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 45(1), pages 124-139, January.
    4. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2018. "Recent finance advances in information technology for inclusive development: a systematic review," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 65-93, October.
    5. Asongu, Simplice, 2015. "Welfare Spending and Quality of Growth in Developing Countries: Evidence from Hopefuls, Contenders and Best Performers," MPRA Paper 68312, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu & Aqsa Aziz, 2018. "Determinants of Mobile Phone Penetration: Panel Threshold Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 81-110, April.
    7. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2017. "Not all that glitters is gold: ICT and inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Happiness and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(4), pages 303-322.
    8. Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "The Effects of Mobile Phone Technology, Knowledge Creation and Diffusion on Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(3), pages 1367-1398, September.
    9. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2017. "Quality of Growth Empirics: Comparative gaps, benchmarking and policy syndromes," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 861-882.
    10. Simplice A. Asongu & Lieven De Moor, 2015. "Recent advances in finance for inclusive development: a survey," Research Africa Network Working Papers 15/005, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    11. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2017. "Recent finance advances in information technology for inclusive development: a survey," Research Africa Network Working Papers 17/009, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    12. Simplice Asongu & Jacinta Nwachukwu, 2016. "Welfare Spending and Quality of Growth in Developing Countries: A Note on Evidence from Hopefuls, Contenders and Best Performers," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 16/028, African Governance and Development Institute..
    13. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2015. "Finance and Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa," MPRA Paper 71787, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2016. "The role of governance in mobile phones for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 55, pages 1-13.
    15. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2018. "Educational quality thresholds in the diffusion of knowledge with mobile phones for inclusive human development in sub-Saharan Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 164-172.
    16. Simplice Asongu & Rexon Nting, 2021. "The role of finance in inclusive human development in Africa revisited," Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(2), pages 345-370, February.
    17. Simplice A. Asongu & Oasis Kodila-Tedika, 2015. "On the Empirics of Institutions and Quality of Growth: Evidence for Developing Countries," Research Africa Network Working Papers 15/041, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    18. Simplice A. Asongu & Ndemaze Asongu, 2018. "Comparative determinants of quality of growth in developing countries," International Journal of Happiness and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(1), pages 65-89.
    19. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Basic formal education quality, information technology, and inclusive human development in sub‐Saharan Africa," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 419-428, May.
    20. Asongu, Simplice A. & Le Roux, Sara, 2017. "Enhancing ICT for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 44-54.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mobile banking; Quality of growth; poverty; inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:abh:wpaper:18/022. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Anutechia Asongu Simplice (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.resanet.org .

    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.