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The object of this paper is to complement theoretical 'mobile penetration' literature with empirical evidence in a dual manner: on the one hand, assess the income-redistributive effect of mobile phone penetration and; on the other hand, the instrumentality of good governance in this nexus. Main findings suggest an equalizing income-redistributive effect, with a higher magnitude in the presence of government quality instruments. It follows that, good governance is a necessary condition for a higher income-equalizing effect of mobile phone penetration. The empirical evidence which deviates from mainstream country-specific and microeconomic survey-based approaches is on 52 African countries. 'Mobile phone'-oriented poverty reduction channels are also discussed.

In this study, we assess how the mobile phone can be leveraged upon to improve the role of governance in environmental sustainability in 44 Sub-Saharan African countries. The Generalised Method of Moments is used to establish policy thresholds. A threshold is a critical mass or level of mobile phone penetration at which the net effect of governance on Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions changes from positive to negative. Mobile phone penetration thresholds associated with negative conditional effects are: 36 (per 100 people) for political stability/no violence; 130 (per 100 people) for regulation quality; 146.66 (per 100 people) for government effectiveness; 65 (per 100 people) for corruption-control and 130 (per 100 people) for the rule of law. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. The study provides thresholds of mobile phone penetration that are critical in complementing governance dynamics to reduce CO2 emissions.

In the quest for the attainment of democracy with its fully unleashed potentials, the role of information and communication technology (ICT) is integral within this current knowledge economy disposition. The study explores the effect of mobile technology penetration on governance quality from the unconditional and marginal effects of mobile phones and diverse democracy indicators. The analysis is carried out by applying the instrumental variables (IV) Tobit regression to the data to examine the relationship among the variables of interest with a view to handling possible endogeneity issues in the empirical model. The study finds that weak democracy is detrimental to the effect of mobile phone penetration on integrated governance quality and that the higher the mobile phone penetration, the lower the weak democracy quality in SSA. The study concludes by recommending efforts and policies to be enacted and implemented such as the enhancement of mobile technology for concise quality governance.

This paper begins with a somewhat paradoxical situation: Portugal is one of the less innovative countries within the European Union by most innovation indicators but, simultaneously, it is a leading country in the diffusion of mobile phones. The remarkable evolution of the mobile telecommunications sector over the last 15 years turns the issue a little more intriguing. This paper addresses the diffusion of mobile phones in Portugal and focuses particularly on the take-off stage, which signalled a sudden change in the pattern of diffusion. The introduction of an innovation – prepaid cards – explains most of the change in the diffusion curve occurred around 1996 and the subsequent increase in the penetration rate. Prior known research has not considered pre-paid cards an important determinant of mobile phone diffusion, but pre-paid services had an enormous impact on the rate of adoption of mobile phones in many countries and it is the major take-off determinant of mobile phone diffusion in Portugal. The time lag between the launching of this innovation in Portugal and its adoption by other EU countries explains why Portugal not just caught up with the EU average mobile phone penetration rate around 1996, but moved ahead of it from then on.

With the decrease of landline phones in the last decade, telephone survey methodologists face a new challenge to overcome coverage bias. In this study we investigate coverage error for telephone surveys in Europe over time and compare two situations: classical surveys that rely on landline only with surveys that also include mobile phones. We analyzed Eurobarometer data, which are collected by means of face-to-face interviews and contain information on ownership of landline and mobile phones. We show that for the period 2000-2009, time has a significant effect on both mobile phone penetration and coverage bias. In addition, the countries' development significantly affects the pace of these changes.

This study assesses the synergy effects of governance in mobile phone penetration for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa with data for the period 2000-2012 by employing a battery of interactive estimation techniques, namely: Fixed effects (FE), Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) and Tobit regressions. Concepts of political (voice & accountability and political stability/no violence), economic (government effectiveness and regulation quality) and institutional (corruption-control and rule of law) governance are employed. The following findings are established. First, the previously apparent positive correlation between mobile phones and inclusive development can be extended to a positive effect. Second, whereas political governance is overwhelmingly not significant across estimated models, average effects from economic governance are higher relative to institutional governance. Third, on the synergy effects from interactions between mobile phones and governance variables, whereas none are apparent in FE regressions, there are significant synergy effects in GMM and Tobit estimations, notably, from: (i) regulation quality in the former and (ii) political stability, voice & accountability and rule of law in the latter. Fourth, there is consistent evidence of convergence in inclusive human development. Policy implications are discussed.