...according to new research by University of California grad student Jenny Aker. Aker looks at the impact of the expansion of mobile coverage on grain markets in Niger and finds that the presence of mobile coverage leads to a reduction in price dispersion across markets and to lower variation in prices across time.
Aker is not the first to show that mobile phones lead to better market outcomes. In a widely cited paper published this year, Rob Jensen showed that mobile coverage caused a reduction in the variation of the price of fish along the Kerala coast (online version not yet available). Nevertheless, Aker's work is important because she shows that mobile coverage not only leads to reductions in variance between different markets at the same time, but also within the same markets over time.
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