March 23, 2025, Oxford, UK
Joël Cariolle, Research Officer at Ferdi, will present his paper co-authored with David Carroll at this annual scientific event organized by the CSAE, the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford, on March 23 in Oxford.
- Published in May 2024, the study "From Phone Access to Food Markets: Is Mobile Connectivity Transforming West-African Livelihoods ?" highlights the role of food demand in explaining price fluctuations. The results show that mobile connectivity not only increases the quantity of food products bought and consumed but also reduces self-consumption among rural households with access to mobile networks. Financial inclusion through mobile money adoption and income diversification through non-agricultural activities are identified as key mechanisms driving the increase in food demand.
↪ The findings suggest that the reduction in food price dispersion due to mobile network access reflects broader rural transformations, rather than simply improved decision-making by better-informed suppliers, challenging dominant claims in existing literature.
- Joël Cariolle will also discuss the study See It Grow: A randomized evaluation of digital innovations in crop insurance to increase insurance and fertilizer demand in Kenya by Berber Kramera, Francesco Cecchib, Benjamin Kivuvac, and Lilian Waithaka.
The CSAE Conference is a three-day event featuring a keynote speech, panels, and parallel sessions on a range of topics related to development economics. This conference brings together colleagues from the development economics community to discuss Africa.
📅 Date: March 23-25
📍 Location: St Catherine's College, Oxford, UK
