Mobile money

Instant payments can substitute for cash when adoption moves quickly beyond high-income early users. Evidence from Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico finds that the key is a rapid low-income gradient: systems must combine low adoption costs, dense networ...

Mobile money taxes raise transaction costs and reduce usage, creating sizable efficiency losses – the burden falls disproportionately on unbanked and rural users.

In Uganda, digital cash transfers had contrasting effects on women’s empowerment: mobile money boosted women’s personal income and decision-making power, while jointly disclosed cash transfers reduced intimate partner violence by fostering trust and ...

How can academics partner with the private sector to conduct research and have impact?

Improving transparency, increasing competition, and addressing gender disparities are key to reducing fraud and strengthening trust in mobile money markets.

Peer-led endorsement doubled mobile banking uptake and increased formal savings among women in Ghana.

While digital credit broadens market access and reduces frictions in developing countries, default rates are often high. In Mexico, reducing loan speed—by doubling delivery time—decreased the likelihood of default significantly. Such waiting periods ...

How are Zambians utilising mobile money? What effect does mobile money have on rural poverty? Could tax changes slow mobile money growth?