Mobile Broadband, Poverty, and Labor Outcomes in Tanzania.

This article examines the impacts of expanding mobile broadband coverage—specifically 3G networks—on poverty, household consumption, and labor-market outcomes in Tanzania, a developing country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using a difference-in-differences estimation with panel household survey data linked to precise geospatial mobile broadband rollout information from 2008 to 2013, the study finds that 3G coverage significantly increases total household consumption by 7–11 percent and reduces poverty rates by 5–7 percentage points. These welfare gains are largely driven by improved labor-market outcomes, including increased labor-force participation, wage employment, and non-farm self-employment, alongside a decline in farm employment. The benefits vary by demographic groups: younger and more educated men experience the largest gains in labor participation and wage employment, while skilled women tend to transition from farm self-employment to non-farm employment, though they do not see increases in labor-force participation or wage employment. The findings highlight both the positive economic effects of mobile broadband infrastructure and the persistent disparities in digital access and labor-market benefits across gender, education, age, and urban-rural divides.