"The Silicon Village: Mobile Money on Migration and Intra-Village Welfare in Rural Tanzania"

Using a three-wave household survey panel dataset collected between 2008 and 2012, this paper examines the effect of mobile money on intra-village welfare and migration behaviour in rural Tanzania. In pursuit of identifying a causal impact on intra-village welfare, several empirical frameworks are implemented, including; an event study design, generalised difference-in-difference, and a network model. The results show that access and use of mobile money exhibit dynamic effects on the distribution of village welfare, disrupting the stability and propagating inequality. The network model detects mobile money acting as a catalyst in modifying the village social structure, and in the presence of aggregate shocks, exacerbating inequality between households. Subsequently, deteriorating and crowding-out traditional risk-sharing relationships. A two-way fixed-effects difference-in-difference model elucidates how temporary migration is a fundamental mechanism in stimulating remittances. The model uncovers that households with mobile money experiencing an aggregate shock are more likely to send members out and will extend the time members spend outside of the village.