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Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.1.1 Data Sources -- 1.1.2 The STEM Gender Divide: Causes and Remedies -- 1.1.3 Intermediaries, First-Time Users of Mobile Internet and Women´s Digital Skills -- 1.1.4 Cumulative Causation and Countervailing Policy -- 1.1.5 The Learning Process for Girls and Women -- References -- Chapter 2: First Time-Users of the Mobile Internet in the Global South -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 The Rationale of Separately Studying First-Time Users of the Mobile Internet -- 2.3 The Particular Problems of First-Time Users of the Mobile Internet -- 2.4 Some Policy Implications -- 2.5 Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 3: The Gender Digital Divide in Mobile Internet Use: Evidence, Explanations and Policy for the Global South -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Main Questions and Data Sources -- 3.3 Research Findings and Explanations -- 3.4 Differential Learning Processes in Digital Skills Between Genders -- 3.5 STEM Learning and the Gender Digital Divide -- 3.6 Conclusions and Policy Implications -- References -- Chapter 4: Gender, Mobile Internet and COVID-19 in the Global South: Multiple Causalities -- 4.1 The Effects of Mobile Internet on Gender and COVID-19 -- 4.2 From Mobile Internet to Female Well-Being -- 4.3 From the Mobile Internet to COVID-19 Among Women -- 4.4 From the Mobile Internet to COVID-19 -- References -- Chapter 5: The Digital Use Divide Between Males and Females at Different Levels of Aggregation -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 The Global Level -- 5.3 Regional Level -- 5.4 Country-Level Comparisons -- 5.5 Gender, Literacy and Digital Skills -- 5.6 Digital Skills -- 5.7 Affordability -- 5.8 Relevance -- 5.9 Safety and Security -- 5.10 Intra-country Level -- 5.11 Policy Implications -- References.

This book analyzes the use of the mobile Internet against the background of gender bias and Covid-19, currently two of the most important and pressing problems of the Global South. The book argues that the degree of benefits from this new technology depends heavily on the way it is actually used and that most new technologies are developed for the conditions prevailing in rich countries, where they tend to be quite easily adopted and used. In the Global South, by contrast, a paucity of digital skills and other factors make the potentially valuable benefits from the Internet much more difficult to derive. Using empirical data recently provided by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), the book examines the existence and extent of the digital divide between males and females in mobile Internet use, which constitutes a new form of divide. It sheds light on the acute difficulty for first-time mobile Internet users in the Global South, and especially Sub-Saharan Africa, to learn the digital skills that are needed to use the said technology effectively, with a special focus on how these users acquire the required knowledge, without having undergone the process of learning by doing. The book further discusses the determinants of digital skills in the Global South, as well as major factors underlying the extent to which different users actually benefit from the mobile Internet, such as gender, location, age, and education. Finally, it investigates how womens' use of the Internet has been altered by the pandemic in the Global South. This book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of development economics and development studies, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the impact of gender bias and Covid-19 on mobile internet use in the Global South.

Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. First-Time Users of the Mobile Internet in the Global South -- Chapter 3. The Gender Digital Divide in Mobile Internet Use: Evidence, Explanations and Policy for the Global-South -- Chapter 4. Gender, Mobile Internet and COVID-19 in the Global South: Multiple Causalities -- Chapter 5. The Digital Use Divide Between Males and Females at Different Levels of Aggregation.

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Main Conclusions by Chapter -- References -- Chapter 2: Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Policy Towards the Corona Epidemic in Developing Countries -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Resolution of Cognitive Dissonance -- 2.3 Dissonance Theory and the Pandemic -- 2.4 Policy Derived from Dissonance Theory -- 2.4.1 Forced Compliance -- 2.5 Non-Coercive Methods of Compliance -- 2.5.1 Group Pressure -- 2.5.2 The Foot-in-the-Door Technique -- 2.5.3 Induced Hypocrisy -- 2.5.4 The Dynamics of Dissonance Policy -- 2.5.5 Nudging -- 2.6 Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 3: Digital Divide Reversal: Evidence, Explanations, and Implications -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Digital Divide Reversal: The Data -- 3.3 Explanations -- 3.3.1 Demographics and the Popularity of Gaming -- 3.3.2 The Differential Value of Time -- 3.3.3 Communications and Infrastructural Differences -- 3.3.4 Costs of Internet Data and Affordability -- 3.4 Conclusions and Implications -- References -- Chapter 4: Why Is India So Dominant in the Demand for New Smart Feature Phones That Are Internet Connected? -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Methodology -- 4.3 Explaining the Indian Experience with the JioPhone in Comparative Perspective -- 4.3.1 Generation -- 4.4 Pre-Adoption (Binary Decisions) -- 4.5 Adoption -- 4.6 Use of Adopted Smart Feature Phones -- 4.7 Welfare Effects -- 4.8 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 5: Interregional and Intercountry Analysis of Mobile Internet Connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Interregional Analysis of Determinants of Mobile Internet Connectivity -- 5.3 Affordability: Handsets, Data, and Incomes -- 5.4 Digital Skills -- 5.5 Rural-Urban Gaps by Region -- 5.6 Intercountry Variations in Internet Connectivity and its Determinants -- 5.6.1 Affordability.

Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Policy Towards the Corona Epidemic in Developing Countries -- Chapter 3. Digital Divide Reversal: Evidence, Explanations and Implications -- Chapter 4. Why is India so Dominant in the Demand for New Smart Feature Phones that are Internet Connected? -- Chapter 5. Interregional and Intercountry Analysis of Mobile Internet Connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa -- Chapter 6. Mobile Use of the Internet Among the Poor in the Global South: Preferences, Theories and Policies.

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Smart Feature Phones -- 1.2 Literacy, the Second Divide and User Choices -- Appendix: A Word on Method -- References -- Part ISmart Feature Phones and Development -- 2 The Smart Feature Phone Revolution in Developing Countries: Bringing the Internet to the Bottom of the Pyramid -- 2.1 The Genesis of the Smart Feature Phone -- 2.2 The Diffusion of Smart Feature Phones -- 2.3 The Impact of Smart Feature Phones -- 2.4 Conclusions -- References -- 3 Smart Feature Phones and Welfare in Poor Developing Countries -- 3.1 Economic Mechanisms -- 3.2 Smart Feature Phones and Other Dimensions of Poverty -- 3.3 Localisation and Relevance of Internet Content -- 3.4 The Linguistic Divide, Smart Feature Phones and the Poor -- 3.5 The Lack of Digital Skills, Countervailing Policies and the Poor in Developing Countries -- 3.6 Conclusions -- References -- 4 Extending the Experience to Sub-Saharan Africa -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Affordability -- 4.2.1 Device Price -- 4.2.2 Data Affordability -- 4.2.3 Income Affordability -- 4.3 Local Content -- 4.4 Digital Skills -- 4.5 Conclusions -- References -- Part IIDigital Skills and Digital Paradoxes -- 5 Measuring the Second Digital Divide: Education and Skills -- 5.1 Measuring the Original Conception of the Digital Divide -- 5.2 Recognition and Measurement of the Second Digital Divide -- 5.3 The Crisis in Learning -- 5.4 Measuring the Digital Skills Component of the Second Digital Divide -- 5.5 The Second Digital Divide and the Sustainable Development Goals -- 5.6 Conclusions -- References -- 6 Anti-development Bias in the Use of the Internet in Developing Countries. What Underlies It? -- 6.1 The Evidence -- 6.2 Discussion -- 6.3 Information Imperfections and Patterns of Internet Use -- 6.4 Causes of Scarce Digital Knowledge in Developing Countries.

This novel book, motivated by the recent introduction of a major innovation in information technology, explores the possibility of the Internet being made available to millions of poor people in developing countries, who are not yet connected. The new technology, known as a smart feature phone, is based on open-source software and otherwise designed for a low-income population. The purpose of this book is to examine the origins, spread and impact of this innovation. Much attention is paid to literacy and digital skills, which determine the benefits that are actually derived.

The current growth path in sub-Saharan Africa is not following the Lewis model where labour moves from low-productivity agriculture to higher productivity manufacturing. Instead, it is moving directly to inappropriate (import and labour-saving) methods. This book seeks to show how this distorted growth process leaves out the major resource of these countries - labour - and ends up creating unstable employment and underemployment, leading to inequality and poverty. In this way it demonstrates how the entire growth process may be rendered unstable and unsustainable. Sustainable Growth in the African Economy considers whether the relatively rapid growth of recent years can be maintained or improved upon, with a focus on the process of industrialisation. Basing itself on a well-known dual-economy model, the proposed book focuses on several major problems of industrialisation, which has long been seen as the means of structural change in an economy which begins from a low income level. The book considers how the future trajectory of sub-Saharan Africa compares to recent success stories on other continents, and explains how factors such as rapid population growth and capital and import-intensive technology in manufacturing could foreshadow future social and political problems. This book will be essential reading to students and policymakers who are concerned with the existing pattern of African growth.

This book investigates at both the micro- and macroeconomic levels the impact of mobile phones on poverty and inequality in developing countries. To gauge the effects of mobile phones on these aspects, the author refers to the standard concept of technology adoption and also analyses the actual utilization of mobile phones as a means of communication and the degree to which they have supplanted fixed-line phones. Readers will learn why the substitution effect is stronger among poor than rich users and why the benefits of some mobile phone projects are confined to the local or village level, while in other projects the gains can be felt throughout the economy as a whole

Jeffrey James is one of the relatively few academics to have systematically taken on the topic of IT and development. In this timely book he undertakes a methodological critique of prominent topics in the debate.Challenging the existing literature by international and governmental institutions, the book looks not only at the digital divide but also at issues such as digital preparedness, leapfrogging and low-cost computers. James also raises important issues which have been largely neglected in the literature, such as the implications for poverty in developing countries and the macroeconomics

Jeffrey James is one of the relatively few academics to have systematically taken on the topic of IT and development. In this timely book he undertakes a methodological critique of prominent topics in the debate. Challenging the existing literature by international and governmental institutions, the book looks not only at the digital divide but also at issues such as digital preparedness, leapfrogging and low-cost computers. James also raises important issues which have been largely neglected in the literature, such as the implications for poverty in developing countries and the macroeconomics of mobile phones. The book argues that benefits from IT are captured in a different form in developing as opposed to developed countries. In the latter, gains come from technology ownership and use, whereas in the former, benefits cannot be captured as much in this way because ownership is more limited. Interestingly, the author shows that developing countries have responded to this distinction with a series of local innovations which are often low-cost and pro-poor. This finding contradicts the widely held view that poor countries are unable to generate major innovations within their own borders. Accessible and clearly written, this book will be of great interest to scholars of development economics and development studies, and is relevant to both policy-makers and academics.