The Economic Impact of Telecommunications in Senegal

While the economic impact of telecommunications has attracted the focus of attention of research in the past, the area of sub-Saharan Africa has only recently become the subject of inquiry. Furthermore, the study of the region represents a case study by itself. Socio-economic parameters like economic stability and growth, compulsory education, access to basic services, rule of law and control of corruption shape an unpredictable environment and certainly affect the impact that wireless and broadband may have. Additionally, embryonic fixed line networks, limited banking facilities and patchy transport links may have an accentuated impact on the development and use of digital networks. In this paper a unique country-level sample was assembled for Senegal for the period 2004-2011 in order to measure the effect of wireless and broadband on the economic growth of the country. Our preliminary results suggest that mobile phones have a measurable impact on economic growth and lie within the estimates of previous work on a much larger scale. On the other hand, the economic effect of broadband cannot be measured yet because the technology is at its very early stages of adoption. However, the rapid growth of third generation services during 2011 suggests a transformation in this type of network access, which might result in important economic effects in the future.