Mobile phones and market information: Evidence from rural Cambodia

Local agricultural markets in developing countries are often characterised as oligopsonistic markets, forcing famers to sell their products below the wholesale price. However, this situation appears to be changing with the diffusion of mobile phones. We investigate how access to market information through mobile phone use affects the selling price of rice in Cambodia. We differentiate the use of mobile phones to obtain market information from household mobile phone ownership. Our results indicate that improved access to market information through mobile phone use is associated with an increase in the selling price of rice.