Electronic Payment Technology and Business Finance: A Randomized, Controlled Trial with Mobile Money

The authors thank Abhilash Maji, Wasike Nambuwani, and Edoardo Totolo for early constructive discussions about this project and FSD-Kenya, especially Wasike Nambuwani, for assistance with the field work. Special thanks to Bruno Biais (editor), the associate editor (anonymous), three anonymous referees, Thorsten Beck, Diana Bonfim (discussant), Rebel Cole (discussant), Harry Huizinga, William Jack, Anne-Sophie Lawniczak (discussant), Robert Lensink, Thomas Mosk, Jeremy Tobacman (discussant), and Wouter Zant (discussant) for their comments and suggestions. This paper has also benefited from comments of participants at the 2017 Wageningen Development Economics Workshop, the 2018 International Monetary Fund-Department for International Development Conference on Financial Inclusion, the 10th European Banking Center Conference in Luxembourg, the 2019 FinTech and Digital Finance Conference at Skema Business School, the 2019 Vrij Universiteit-Amsterdam Development Economics Workshop, the 2019 Competitiveness Policy Lab-Development Impact Evaluation Impact Evaluation Workshop in Athens, the 2019 European Alternative Finance Conference at Utrecht University, and seminars at the University of Groningen, Bogazici University, and Tilburg University. This paper is written in the framework of the research project “Enabling Innovation and Productivity Growth in Low Income Countries (EIP-LIC/PO5639)” and implemented by Tilburg University and partners.

This paper is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend and coauthor Ravindra Ramrattan, who inspired us to begin research on mobile money and who lost his life at the tragic Westgate Mall terrorist attacks in Nairobi, Kenya. Ravi’s soul has guided us until the completion of this paper.