This book investigates at both the micro- and macroeconomic levels the impact of mobile phones on poverty and inequality in developing countries. To gauge the effects of mobile phones on these aspects, the author refers to the standard concept of technology adoption and also analyses the actual utilization of mobile phones as a means of communication and the degree to which they have supplanted fixed-line phones. Readers will learn why the substitution effect is stronger among poor than rich users and why the benefits of some mobile phone projects are confined to the local or village...

The current growth path in sub-Saharan Africa is not following the Lewis model where labour moves from low-productivity agriculture to higher productivity manufacturing. Instead, it is moving directly to inappropriate (import and labour saving) methods. This book seeks to show how this distorted growth process leaves out the major resource of these countries labour ends up creating unstable employment and under-employment, leading to inequality and poverty. In this way it demonstrates how the entire growth process may be rendered unstable and unsustainable.