Royal Economic Society - Media Briefings:
Mobile phones amplify political unrest in times of crisis: evidence from across Africa
1 March 2016
The study, published by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics, is the first systematically to test the theory that mobile phones act as catalysts for political unrest. The researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) find that when a country undergoes a serious recession - a four percentage point contraction - areas of the country with mobile phone coverage protest 16% more than areas without phone coverage.
This article was published online by The Royal Economic Society as a Media Briefing on March 1, 2016
Link to article here
Related publications
'Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa', Marco Manacorda and Andrea Tesei, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1419, March 2016
Related links
Marco Manacorda webpage
Labour Markets Programme webpage