Publication: Digital Technology Uses among Informal Micro-Sized Firms: Productivity and Jobs Outcomes in Senegal
Date
2021-03
ISSN
Published
2021-03
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper explores the use of digital
technologies among informal micro-sized firms in Senegal,
their association with productivity, sales, exports and
jobs, and the role of age and gender dimensions of
enterprise owners. The study uses a new national sample of
over 500 firms, of which over 90 percent are not fully
formal and over 95 percent are micro-sized, employing five
or fewer full-time employees. The analysis finds that using
a 2G mobile phone is significantly positively correlated
both with productivity and sales, and using a smartphone is
associated with an additional premium relative to using a
2G. The largest statistically significant conditional
correlate of productivity, sales and jobs is a more
specialized internal-to-the-firm management technology
proxying for management capabilities more generally, namely
inventory control/point of sales (POS) software. Use of
digital technologies to facilitate external-to-the-firm
transactions, namely using mobile money to pay suppliers and
to receive payments from customers are also statistically
significant conditional correlates of productivity and
sales. Using a smartphone is also positively correlated with
exporting (while using only a 2G phone is not). Finally,
there are significant digital divides in the use of digital
technologies across age and gender groupings.
Citation
“Atiyas, İzak; Dutz, Mark A.. 2021. Digital Technology Uses among Informal Micro-Sized Firms: Productivity and Jobs Outcomes in Senegal. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9573. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35251 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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