Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia
Using household survey data from rural Ethiopia, this study explores the role of mobile telephony in smallholder farmers' price expectation formations. The empirical findings suggest that farmers who own mobile phones and who reside closer to markets make smaller price forecasting errors. The benefi...
| Autores principales: | , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Elsevier
2019
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/103389 |
| _version_ | 1855524070727090176 |
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| author | Haile, M.G. Assfaw Wossen, Tesfamicheal Kalkuhl, M. |
| author_browse | Assfaw Wossen, Tesfamicheal Haile, M.G. Kalkuhl, M. |
| author_facet | Haile, M.G. Assfaw Wossen, Tesfamicheal Kalkuhl, M. |
| author_sort | Haile, M.G. |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Using household survey data from rural Ethiopia, this study explores the role of mobile telephony in smallholder farmers' price expectation formations. The empirical findings suggest that farmers who own mobile phones and who reside closer to markets make smaller price forecasting errors. The beneficial effect of mobile phones is stronger for households that reside farther away from grain markets, indicating that mobile telephony provides information that at least partially compensates location-disadvantaged farmers. Holding all else constant, mobile phone ownership is associated with about a 30% decrease in the conditional mean of a smallholder's price prediction error, whereas an additional kilometer from nearby grain markets reduces the expected prediction error by about 10%. The results are robust across different econometric estimators as well as the use of alternative measurements of price forecasting error. Our simulation analysis shows that accurate information about grain price developments could save a significant welfare loss for smallholders. Depending on their income levels, the analysis hints that smallholder farmers would be willing to pay between 7% and 20% of their income to improve the price signal, in other words, to avoid uncertainty on producer prices. Our work emphasizes an alternative way to deal with price volatility and improve farmers' welfare that focuses on improving access to information rather than reducing volatility per se. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace103389 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateRange | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| publisherStr | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1033892024-11-22T12:11:49Z Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia Haile, M.G. Assfaw Wossen, Tesfamicheal Kalkuhl, M. prices forecasting smallholders farmers market research communication technology Using household survey data from rural Ethiopia, this study explores the role of mobile telephony in smallholder farmers' price expectation formations. The empirical findings suggest that farmers who own mobile phones and who reside closer to markets make smaller price forecasting errors. The beneficial effect of mobile phones is stronger for households that reside farther away from grain markets, indicating that mobile telephony provides information that at least partially compensates location-disadvantaged farmers. Holding all else constant, mobile phone ownership is associated with about a 30% decrease in the conditional mean of a smallholder's price prediction error, whereas an additional kilometer from nearby grain markets reduces the expected prediction error by about 10%. The results are robust across different econometric estimators as well as the use of alternative measurements of price forecasting error. Our simulation analysis shows that accurate information about grain price developments could save a significant welfare loss for smallholders. Depending on their income levels, the analysis hints that smallholder farmers would be willing to pay between 7% and 20% of their income to improve the price signal, in other words, to avoid uncertainty on producer prices. Our work emphasizes an alternative way to deal with price volatility and improve farmers' welfare that focuses on improving access to information rather than reducing volatility per se. 2019-08 2019-08-23T09:17:12Z 2019-08-23T09:17:12Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/103389 en Limited Access Elsevier Haile, M. G., Assfaw Wossen, T. & Kalkuhl, M. (2019). Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 145, 82-92. |
| spellingShingle | prices forecasting smallholders farmers market research communication technology Haile, M.G. Assfaw Wossen, Tesfamicheal Kalkuhl, M. Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia |
| title | Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia |
| title_full | Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia |
| title_fullStr | Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia |
| title_short | Access to information, price expectations and welfare: the role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia |
| title_sort | access to information price expectations and welfare the role of mobile phone adoption in ethiopia |
| topic | prices forecasting smallholders farmers market research communication technology |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/103389 |
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