Purpose

The study presents and evaluates a proposition that there is market information bundled with the mobile money (m-money) system. Also, that such information is disseminated to farmers in the process of their normal financial transactions and business interactions. This market information is important to mitigate the price uncertainty of farm products.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical analysis is conducted with a two-stage econometric procedure. First, a probit model is used to estimate the likelihood of m-money take-up by farm entrepreneurs. Second, the ordinary least squares model is used to regress the farming price uncertainty index on the m-money take-up, which is quantified with a set of predicted values from the probit model in the first stage. The data used in econometric estimation come from Kenya's FinAccess Household Survey published in 2016.

Findings

The results of this paper show a negative effect of m-money service take-up on the price uncertainty index. A one unit increase in the m-money system is associated with a 12% reduction in the price uncertainty index. The authors interpret this as saying that access to the m-money system by farm business has a beneficial spillover effect on product risk mitigation, ceteris paribus.

Research limitations/implications

The implication of this research is that policy initiatives which support farm entrepreneurs to access the m-money system should be encouraged not only for their financial inclusion advantage but also for their positive externality on product risk amelioration for rural farm businesses.

Originality/value

The paper introduces an idea that the m-money system is bundled with relevant information for mitigating price risk to the benefit of rural farm businesses.

中文翻译：

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移动货币系统和市场风险缓解：肯尼亚农业企业的计量经济学案例研究

目的

该研究提出并评估了一个命题，即存在与移动货币 (m-money) 系统捆绑在一起的市场信息。此外，此类信息会在农民正常的金融交易和业务往来过程中传播给他们。这种市场信息对于减轻农产品价格的不确定性很重要。

设计/方法/方法

实证分析采用两阶段计量经济学程序进行。首先，使用概率模型来估计农场企业家接受移动货币的可能性。其次，使用普通最小二乘模型对 m-money take up 回归农业价格不确定性指数，该指数在第一阶段用概率模型的一组预测值进行量化。计量经济学估计中使用的数据来自肯尼亚 2016 年发布的 FinAccess 家庭调查。

发现

本文的结果显示了移动货币服务对价格不确定性指数的负面影响。移动货币系统每增加一个单位，价格不确定性指数就会下降 12%。作者将其解释为，在其他条件不变的情况下，农场企业使用移动货币系统对降低产品风险具有有益的溢出效应。

研究限制/影响

本研究的意义在于，不仅应鼓励支持农场企业家进入移动货币系统的政策举措，这不仅是因为他们的金融普惠优势，而且是因为它们在改善农村农场企业的产品风险方面具有积极的外部性。

原创性/价值

本文介绍了一种想法，即移动货币系统与相关信息捆绑在一起，以降低价格风险，使农村农场企业受益。