Work in Progress
From Connection to Coordination: Unraveling the Relationship between High-Speed Internet and Protests in Africa
This study leverages the staggered arrival of submarine Internet cables and the terrestrial backbone network in Africa to examine the influence of high-speed Internet (encompassing both fixed and mobile) on political mobilization. Utilizing Afrobarometer and ACLED data across ten countries, robust difference-in-differences estimates indicate a significant increase in both the likelihood of protest participation and the frequency of protests. Crucially, this effect is observed in ‘free’ countries, where political rights and civil liberties are actively exercised. The analysis explores two key mechanisms—information dissemination and coordination facilitation—with enhanced coordination emerging as the key driver of the observable impact.
Welfare Cost of Mobile Spectrum (Mis)allocation (with Marc Ivaldi, Julienne Liang and Louise Aïmène) - Working Paper
The conditions of spectrum allocation or reallocation are significant in determining the market structure in the telecom sector which in turn affects the prices and the quality of mobile networks. In a more concentrated market, the quantity of spectrum is less diluted, and operators can offer higher quality to their customers; In a more competitive market, where there are more operators, consumers can benefit from a lower price but at the expense of less spectrum for each operator. To address this trade-off, we first fit a demand model of mobile telecommunications services on a unique panel database for 23 MNOs of five major European countries from 2004Q3 to 2021Q4. Notably, we provide an adequate proxy of the mobile network quality for consumers by combining coverage data with spectrum data. Using this estimated demand model, we conduct a counterfactual simulation to measure the effect on consumer surplus of the incomplete spectrum allocation and the arrival of an additional operator in Germany. Results show that reallocating additional spectrum to three instead of four operators is consumer welfare improving as prices do not increase much while quality is significantly improved.
From Bytes to Business: Assessing the Role of Mobile Broadband Internet in the Creation of Tunisian Firms (with Mohamed Ali Marouani)
This paper investigates the impact of mobile broadband Internet on business creation in Tunisia. Using a rich dataset of Tunisian delegations, the study employs a count model to assess the influence of mobile broadband Internet quality and other infrastructure and delegation characteristics on firm location decisions.The empirical findings demonstrate a robust positive relationship between the density of 4G antennas per 1000 inhabitants and the number of new business creations. Notably, this relationship exhibits greater magnitude and delayed effects in rural areas, indicating differential technology adoption rates and underscoring that access to advanced mobile broadband infrastructure alone may not be sufficient to launch a business. This research highlights the potential role of mobile broadband in stimulating local economic growth and provides nuanced insights into the economic implications of the digital divide.
Publications
Valuing the
Virtual: The Impact of Fiber to the Home on Property Prices in
France - Telecommunications Policy, Volume 48, Issue 4,
May 2024
This paper examines the value that households place on very high-speed internet access, explicitly focusing on the impact of eligibility for Fiber to the Home (FTTH) technology on property prices. Using a Spatial Discontinuity Design based on the border of fiber eligibility zones which have significantly expanded under France’s Plan Très Haut-Débit, I find that FTTH eligibility is a significant determinant of property prices, with an average increase of 0.9 percent. I also consider heterogeneities in FTTH valuation, accounting for socioeconomic characteristics, local factors, and the performance of legacy copper networks. These findings highlight the growing importance of fast and reliable broadband access for households and have important implications for policymakers and Internet service providers.
Impact of broadband internet on preventive healthcare behaviors in Senegal (with Pauline Kergall) - Forthcoming in Economics and Statistics
In sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries the main channels of morbidity and mortality are preventable and treatable diseases. Yet, SSA countries invest little in preventive healthcare. Available literature has shown that providing health information can have an impact on health behaviors. In SSA, most of the internet traffic (fixed and mobile) goes through backbone networks. The arrival of optic fiber submarine cables in 2010 brought broadband connectivity to Senegal, allowing access to healthcare information online. Using the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) datasets combined with the Afterfibre database, and a Difference-in-Difference methodology, this study aims to assess the impact of the arrival of broadband internet on preventive health behaviors in Senegal. Broadband access is found to be positively associated with the use of bednet, mixed results are found regarding the use of antenatal care, while no impact on child immunization is found. If the positive impacts of internet access are confirmed, the expansion of broadband internet could have important positive spillover effects to improve health through increased access to information.