Mobile phones, institutional quality and entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study investigates the role of mobile phones in governance for doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa with data from the period 2000-2012 by employing the Generalised Method of Moments. Three broad concepts of governance are explored, namely: (i) political (comprising voice & accountability and political stability/no violence), (ii) economic (involving government effectiveness and regulation quality) and (iii) institutional (including corruption-control and rule of law). Ten dimensions of entrepreneurship are considered. Two main findings are established with respect to the net effects of the interaction between mobile phones and governance dynamics. They are (1) reduced cost of business start-up procedure, the time to build a warehouse and the time to resolve an insolvency; (2) increased start-up procedure to register a business; the time to enforce a contract; the time to register a property and time to prepare and pay taxes. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.