The Impact of Mobile Phones on Change in Employment Status in South

The Impact of Mobile Phones on Change in Employment Status in South Africa By Lukasz Grzybowski and Zubair Patel Motivation • One of the key problems of the labour market in South Africa is the spatial distribution of supply and demand for labour. [...] *Using mobile devices to access the Internet includes access on mobile phones and on other devices via 3G or 4G SIM cards Literature Review • Economic impact of mobile phones in developing countries • Jensen (2007): Mobile phone adoption by fishermen led to better price discovery and adherence to the law of one price. [...] Literature Review • Internet and labour markets in developed economies • Dettling (2017): Married women with access to high-speed internet are more likely to join the labour force relative to men and single women. [...] Literature Review • Mobile phones and labour markets in developing economies • Studies on the impact of mobile coverage on labour markets in developing countries are scarce. [...] *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1 Table 5: Estimation results of owning a mobile phone and becoming unemployed (abridged) Results • Owning a mobile phone and having a home computer decreases the probability of becoming unemployed.