American Economic Review Vol. 103 No. 3 2013

Transaction Networks: Evidence from Mobile Money in Kenya

William Jack¹; Adam Ray²; Tavneet Suri³

¹ Department of Economics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057. · ² Innovations for Poverty Action, 101 Whitney Ave., New Haven, CT 06510. · ³ MIT Sloan School of Management, 100 Main Street, E62-517, Cambridge, MA 02142.

Abstract

Mobile money allows households in Kenya to spread risk more efficiently. In this paper we show that these efficiencies are achieved through deeper financial integration and expanded informal networks. Active networks are more geographically dispersed and support more reciprocal financial arrangements. Consistent with the reported reciprocity, mobile money users report a higher share of transactions as being for credit and insurance purposes.

DOI

10.1257/aer.103.3.356

Volume

103

Issue

3

Pages

356-361

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

Cite

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