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Access to financial institutions is difficult in developing economies and especially for the poor. However, the widespread adoption of mobile phones has enabled the development of mobile money systems that deliver financial services through…
The rapid spread of mobile phones means that the number of mobile users may already exceed the number of banked people in many low income countries. Mobile phones can also offer a communications channel for initiating and executing on-line…
In this work, we analyze the problem of adoption of mobile money in Pakistan by using the call detail records of a major telecom company as our input. Our results highlight the fact that different sections of the society have different…
Digital financial services have catalyzed financial inclusion in Africa. Commonly implemented as a mobile wallet service referred to as mobile money (MoMo), the technology provides enormous benefits to its users, some of whom have long been…
Globally, two billion people and more than half of the poorest adults do not use formal financial services. Consequently, there is increased emphasis on developing financial technology that can facilitate access to financial products for…
Can mobile phone data improve program targeting? By combining rich survey data from a "big push" anti-poverty program in Afghanistan with detailed mobile phone logs from program beneficiaries, we study the extent to which machine learning…
Mobile money can facilitate financial inclusion in developing countries, which usually have high mobile phone use and steady remittance activity. Many countries in Latin America meet the minimum technological requirements to use mobile…
We provide systematic evidence on the potential for estimating household well-being from mobile phone data. Using data from four countries - Afghanistan, Cote d'Ivoire, Malawi, and Togo - we conduct parallel, standardized machine learning…
Poverty maps are essential tools for governments and NGOs to track socioeconomic changes and adequately allocate infrastructure and services in places in need. Sensor and online crowd-sourced data combined with machine learning methods have…
Do today's communication technologies hold potential to alleviate poverty? The mobile phone's accessibility and use allows us with an unprecedented volume of data on social interactions, mobility and more. Can this data help us better…
Financial inclusion is a longstanding concern across underdeveloped communities, particularly for women. However, there are limited data-driven measures to first quantitatively identify such concerns and second to inform policies. In this…
The rising popularity of mobile payments can be attributed to the widespread use of smartphones and their applications. Despite its potential to simplify our lives, its adoption in African countries has been limited. This paper aims to…
Governments spend billions of dollars subsidizing the adoption of different goods. However, it is difficult to gauge whether those goods are resold, or are valued by their ultimate recipients. This project studies a program to subsidize the…
Recent studies have shown the value of mobile phone data to tackle problems related to economic development and humanitarian action. In this research, we assess the suitability of indicators derived from mobile phone data as a proxy for…
Mobile-based financial services have made it possible for the traditionally unbanked to access infrastructure that have been routinely unattainable. Researchers have explored how these systems have made for safer environments to send and…
Reliable statistical information is important to make political decisions on a sound basis and to help measure the impact of policies. Unfortunately, statistics offices in developing countries have scarce resources and statistical censuses…
The study examines the relationship between mobile financial services and individual financial behavior in India wherein a sizeable population is yet to be financially included. Addressing the endogeneity associated with the use of mobile…
Traditional sources of population data, such as censuses and surveys, are costly, infrequent, and often unavailable in crisis-affected regions. Mobile phone application data offer near real-time, high-resolution insights into population…
Digital payment systems have become a cornerstone of consumer finance in Africa. Prominent payment categories include money transfer applications, mobile money, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).…
Cash payment is still king in several markets, accounting for more than 90\ of the payments in almost all the developing countries. The usage of mobile phones is pretty ordinary in this present era. Mobile phones have become an inseparable…