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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present theoretical and empirical arguments for the role of mobile telephony in promoting good governance in 47 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2000–2012. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical inquiry uses an endogeneity-robust GMM approach with forward orthogonal deviations to analyze the linkage between mobile phone usage and the variation in three broad governance categories – political, economic and institutional. Findings: Three key findings are established: first, in terms of individual governance indicators, mobile phones consistently stimulated good governance by the same magnitude, with the exception of the effect on the regulation component of economic governance. Second, when indicators are combined, the effect of mobile phones on general governance is three times higher than that on the institutional governance category. Third, countries with lower levels of governance indicators are catching-up with their counterparts with more advanced dynamics. Originality/value: The study makes both theoretical and empirical contributions by highlighting the importance of various combinations of governance indicators and their responsiveness to mobile phone usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates how openness influences information and communication technology (ICT) penetration for improved government quality in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000–2012. Openness is measured in terms of trade and financial globalization whereas ICT is proxied with mobile phone and internet penetration rates. Ten bundled and unbundled governance indicators are used. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments with forward orthogonal deviations. The main findings are First, financial openness has an edge over trade openness when combined with ICT to affect both economic and institutional governance. Second, mobile phones have an edge over internet penetration in complementing (i) trade openness for economic governance and (ii) financial openness for institutional governance. Third, net effects on political governance are consistently negative. Taken together, in the short-run, openness-driven ICT policies are more rewarding in terms of economic and institutional governance than political governance. Fourth, catch-up in governance is facilitated by the interaction between openness and ICT. Contributions of these findings to literature are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how information and communication technology (ICT) could be employed to dampen the potentially damaging effects of environmental degradation in order to promote inclusive human development in a panel of 44 Sub-Saharan African countries. ICT is captured with internet and mobile phone penetration rates whereas environmental degradation is measured in terms of CO2 emissions per capita and CO2 intensity. The empirical evidence is based on fixed effects and Tobit regressions using data from 2000 to 2012. In order to increase the policy relevance of this study, the dataset is decomposed into fundamental characteristics of inclusive development and environmental degradation based on income levels (low income vs. middle income); legal origins (English Common law vs. French Civil law); religious domination (Christianity vs. Islam); openness to sea (landlocked vs. coastal); resource-wealth (oil-rich vs. oil-poor) and political stability (stable vs. unstable). Baseline findings broadly show that improvement in both of measures of ICT would significantly diminish the possibly harmful effect of CO2 emissions on inclusive human development. When the analysis is extended with the above mentioned fundamental characteristics, we observe that the moderating influence of both our ICT variables on CO2 emissions is higher in the group of English Common law, middle income and oil-wealthy countries than in the French Civil law, low income countries and oil-poor countries respectively. Theoretical and practical policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates critical masses or thresholds of educational quality at which the diffusion of information with mobile phones enhances inclusive human development. The empirical evidence is based on simultaneity-robust Fixed Effects regressions with data from 49 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2000–2012. The following findings are established: (1) There are positive marginal and net effects on inclusive development from the interaction between mobile phones and educational quality, (2) Between 10 and 27 pupils per teacher is needed in primary education in order for mobile phones to enhance inclusive human development, (3) From a comparative dimension: (i) English Common law countries enjoy higher net effects compared to their French Civil law counterparts, (ii) positive net effects are more obvious in politically stable (vis-à-vis politically unstable) countries, (iii) positive net impacts are also more apparent in resource-poor (vis-à-vis resource-rich) countries, (iv) low income (vis-à-vis higher income) countries have a higher net effect on inclusive development, (v) landlocked (vis-à-vis unlandlocked) countries experience higher net effects and (iv) Islam-dominated countries have a slightly higher net impact compared to their Christian-oriented counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how information and communication technology (ICT) influences openness to improve the conditions of doing business in sub-Saharan Africa.Design/methodology/approach The data were collected for the period 2000-2012. ICT is proxied with internet and mobile phone penetration rates whereas openness is measured in terms of financial and trade globalisation. Ten indicators of doing business are used, namely: cost of business start-up procedures; procedure to enforce a contract; start-up procedures to register a business; time required to build a warehouse; time required to enforce a contract; time required to register a property; time required to start a business; time to export; time to prepare and pay taxes; and time to resolve an insolvency. The empirical evidence is based on generalised method of moments with forward orthogonal deviations.Findings While the authors find substantial evidence that ICT complements openness to improve conditions for entrepreneurship, the effects are contingent on the dynamics of openness, ICT and entrepreneurship. Theoretical and practical policy implications are discussed.Originality/value The inquiry is based on two contemporary development concerns: the need for policy to leverage on the ICT penetration potential in the sub-region and the relevance of entrepreneurship in addressing associated issues of population growth such as unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of inclusive development strategies in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda depends substantially on the adoption of common inclusive development policies among nations. Building on the relevance of a knowledge economy in the post-2015 development agenda, this study models the feasibility of common policies for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). More specifically, we investigate the complementary role of knowledge diffusion in the inclusive benefits of mobile phone penetration in SSA from 2000 to 2012 by employing the Generalised Method of Moments. Knowledge diffusion variables include educational quality, innovation and Internet penetration. The main finding is that inclusive human development is persistently conditional on mobile phones in knowledge diffusion. Moreover, countries with low levels of inclusive human development are catching-up their counterparts with higher development. Policy implications are discussed with particular emphasis on how to leverage common knowledge economy initiatives for inclusive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This study assesses the mobile phone in the diffusion of knowledge for better governance in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2000 to 2012. For this purpose we employ Generalised Method of Moments with forward orthogonal deviations. The empirical evidence is based on three complementary knowledge diffusion variables (innovation, internet penetration and educational quality) and 10 governance indicators that are bundled and unbundled. The following are the main findings. First , there is an unconditional positive effect of mobile phone penetration on good governance. Second , the net effects on political, economic, and institutional governances that are associated with the interaction of the mobile phone with knowledge diffusion variables are positive for the most part. Third , countries with low levels of governance are catching-up their counterparts with higher levels of governance. The above findings are broadly consistent with theoretical underpinnings on the relevance of mobile phones in mitigating bad governance in Africa. The evidence of some insignificant net effects and decreasing marginal impacts may be an indication that the mobile phone could also be employed to decrease government quality. Overall, this study has established net positive effects for the most part. Five rationales could elicit the positive net effects on good governance from the interaction between mobile phones and knowledge diffusion, among others, the knowledge variables enhance: reach, access, adoption, cost-effectiveness, and interaction. In a nut shell, the positive net effects are apparent because the knowledge diffusion variables complement mobile phones in reducing information asymmetry and monopoly that create conducive conditions for bad governance. The contribution of the findings to existing theories and justifications of the underlying positive net effects are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]