9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
The Role of Social Networks on the Adoption of Financial Services in Rural Mozambique
A collaborative effort with Carteira Movel
Recent research in Mozambique has shown considerable adoption of mobile money in rural areas of Southern Mozambique. However, it remains to be understood how information and adoption diffuse within mobile money users in rural areas.
This research project examines how social influence and peers affect the adoption of mobile money services. For this purpose, we (exogenously) build social links between about 1,000 mobile money users that have been part of a randomized control trial implemented by Nova SBE NOVAFRICA Knowledge Center for the last two years. We will randomly assign social links to participants and, by varying the structure of the social network, be able to assess the role of network density, clustering and centrality in the diffusion of information and adoption. Within the networks, chosen individuals will be provided with further information to allow us to measure how this information affects mobile money usage.
Principal Investigators:
Cátia Batista (Nova SBE)
Marcel Fafchamps (Stanford)
Pedro Vicente (Nova SBE)´
Field Coordination:
Stefanus Leeffers
Funding:
International Growth Center (IGC)
The full content was originally published in Novafrica.org
