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On the Importance of Price Information to Fishers and to Economists: Revisiting Mobile Phone Use Among Fishers in Kerala
In this article, we revisit a study that has become canonical in ICTD, economist Robert Jensen’s study of mobile phone use in ashing markets in north Kerala. Jensen found that the use of mobile phones to share market price information made ash markets more efacient, while also improving producer and...
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| Format: | Printed Book |
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Information Technologies & International Development,
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| Online Access: | http://10.26.1.76/ks/005338.pdf |
| LEADER | 01863nam a22001337a 4500 | ||
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| 100 | |a Janaki Srinivasan and Jenna Burrell |9 24568 | ||
| 245 | |a On the Importance of Price Information to Fishers and to Economists: Revisiting Mobile Phone Use Among Fishers in Kerala | ||
| 260 | |b Information Technologies & International Development, | ||
| 300 | |a p.57–70 |b 11(1) | ||
| 520 | |a In this article, we revisit a study that has become canonical in ICTD, economist Robert Jensen’s study of mobile phone use in ashing markets in north Kerala. Jensen found that the use of mobile phones to share market price information made ash markets more efacient, while also improving producer and consumer welfare. Based on our own ethnographic case study in the region, we examine the historical, geographic, and political-economic conditions in which Jensen’s andings hold. We show that north Kerala’s coastal geography and prevalent credit relationships make it a special case of ash trading where ashers had the oexibility to optimize proats by selling at different markets. Fishers’ ability to leverage mobile phones for sharing price information derived from this oexibility. Moreover, we found a broader deanition of welfare at play that went beyond increased income. Those working in various roles in Kerala’s ashing industry emphasized a spectrum of beneats from phone use, including maintaining trade relations, facilitating coordination, and protecting themselves during times of risk, vulnerability, or emergency. We suggest that parsimonious models, such as Jensen’s, can generate blind spots, which are problematic when such studies are used to draw broader conclusions about policy and technology design. | ||
| 856 | |u http://10.26.1.76/ks/005338.pdf | ||
| 942 | |c KS | ||
| 999 | |c 75872 |d 75872 | ||
| 952 | |0 0 |1 0 |4 0 |7 0 |9 67855 |a MGUL |b MGUL |d 2015-12-12 |l 0 |r 2015-12-12 |w 2015-12-12 |y KS | ||