Do mobile phones improve per-capita income?: Granger causality test based on cross-country dataset

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of mobile technology on global economic development. For this, we used a global dataset that represents the proliferation of cellular phones and per capita GDP among 213 countries and regions. Then, we conducted the Granger causality test to investigate how the rapid spread of cellular phones relates to the growth of per capita GDP by regions, particularly in developing countries, emerging countries, and developed countries during the two decades since the 1990s. This study reveals two observations. First, in the 1990s, higher income led to an early diffusion of mobile technology among developed countries, although no causal relationship was visible in the emerging and developing countries. Second, the worldwide spread of the mobile technology in the 2000s began to promote the growth of per capita GDP not only in developed countries but also in emerging and developing countries such as African nations. Consequently, it seems reasonable to conclude that mobile technology, which prevailed only in the wealthier nations in the 1990s, has turned into a driving force of worldwide economic development in the 2000s