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Cited by 339

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 12 of the 12 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa

Manacorda, Marco, Tesei, Andrea·2020·Econometrica
DOI 10.3982/ecta14392
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Abstract

Can digital information and communication technology foster mass political mobilization? We use a novel georeferenced data set for the entire African continent between 1998 and 2012 on the coverage of mobile phone signal together with georeferenced data from multiple sources on the occurrence of protests and on individual participation in protests to bring this argument to empirical scrutiny. We find that while mobile phones are instrumental to mass mobilization, this only happens during economic downturns, when reasons for grievance emerge and the cost of participation falls. The results are in line with insights from a network model with imperfect information and strategic complementarities in protest occurrence. Mobile phones make individuals more responsive to both changes in economic conditions—a mechanism that we ascribe to enhanced information—and to their neighbors' participation—a mechanism that we ascribe to enhanced coordination.

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Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Manacorda, M., & Tesei, A.
Venue
Econometrica
Publisher
The Econometric Society
Published
2020
Volume
88
Issue
2
Pages
533-567
ISSN
0012-9682 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3982/ecta14392
OpenAlex
W3020993032
Cited by
339
References
12
FWCI
54.53
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.3982/ecta14392
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Manacorda, M., & Tesei, A. (2020). Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa. Econometrica. https://doi.org/10.3982/ecta14392

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