Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jun 26;109(26):10257-62. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1115843109. Epub 2012 Jun 11.
The birth and explosive growth of mobile money in Kenya has provided economists with an opportunity to study the evolution and impact of a new financial system. Mobile money is an innovation that allows individuals to store, send, and receive money on their mobile phone via text message. This system has opened up basic financial services to many who were previously excluded, and has had real and measurable impacts on the ability of households to protect themselves against health risks. Using a unique survey instrument covering nearly 2,300 households over 2008-2010, we first document the lightning-fast adoption of mobile money in Kenya, which was faster than most documented modern technologies in the United States. We then present evidence on how this innovation allows households to respond better to unexpected adverse health events. We find that in the face of these events, users of mobile money are better able to tap into remittances to finance additional health care costs without having to forego necessary expenditures on education, food, and other consumption needs.
肯尼亚移动货币的诞生和爆炸式增长为经济学家提供了一个研究新金融体系的演变和影响的机会。移动货币是一种创新，它允许个人通过短信在手机上存储、发送和接收资金。该系统为以前被排斥在外的人提供了基本的金融服务，并对家庭抵御健康风险的能力产生了真实和可衡量的影响。我们使用了一个独特的调查工具，涵盖了 2008 年至 2010 年期间的近 2300 个家庭，首先记录了肯尼亚移动货币的闪电般快速普及，其普及速度超过了美国大多数有记录的现代技术。然后，我们提出了有关这项创新如何使家庭能够更好地应对意外的不利健康事件的证据。我们发现，面对这些事件，移动货币的使用者能够更好地利用汇款来支付额外的医疗费用，而不必放弃教育、食品和其他消费需求的必要支出。
