Afghanistan

Violence and Financial Decisions: Evidence from Mobile Money in Afghanistan

We provide evidence that violence reduces the adoption and use of mobile money in three separate empirical settings in Afghanistan. First, analyzing nationwide mobile money transaction logs, we find that users exposed to violence reduce use of mobile money.

Journal Article
20 Dec 2021

Conflict and Private Enterprise Activity in Low-Income Countries

Violent conflict has numerous negative effects on private entrepreneurial activity and, as a consequence, on economic development.

Research Note
10 Jul 2015

Business as Unusual. An Explanation of the Increase of Private Economic Activity in High-Conflict Areas in Afghanistan

In this paper, Ciarli, Kofol, and Menon (2015) use a unique dataset that combines spatial detailed information on conflict events and on households' activity, to show a positive and significant correlation between violent conflict and entrepreneurship in Afghanistan.

Working Paper
25 Jun 2015

Promises and Pitfalls of Mobile Money in Afghanistan: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial

Despite substantial interest in the potential for mobile money to positively impact the lives of the poor, little empirical evidence exists to substantiate these claims.

Conference Paper
1 May 2015

The Relation Between Conflict and Private Enterprise Activity in Low-Income Countries

The research team built a unique data set on Afghani households to study the causal relationship between conflict and private enterprise, in particular entrepreneurship, in conflict-affected areas.

Research Project
10 Jun 2014

Mobile Salary Payments in Afghanistan

This research note by Blumenstock, Callen and Ghani (2013) outlines the impact of mobile salary payments on transaction costs for the employer, demand for mobile services and employees' savings.

Research Note
17 Oct 2013

Using Mobile Salary Payments to Improve Afghan Firm Performance

The research team considers the ability of mobile salary payments in Afghanistan to mitigate constraints on workers and businesses such as weak security, reliability, and efficiency by examining the deployment of a service that allows Afghan firms to pay salaries directly to employees' mobile phones.

Research Project
1 Jan 2012