coverage, while non-food consumption increases by 6.1% and 6.9% respectively. Therefore, the effect of access to 3G/4G mobile networks, while not being immediate, manifests itself after one year and thereafter increases at a decreasing rate over time.

If the increase in consumption is experienced by poor households, these results may imply that access to 3G/4G mobile networks would reduce poverty. We look at the two poverty lines commonly used by the World Bank for global poverty monitoring: the US$1.90-a-day and the US$ 3.20-a-day poverty lines (Table 6 and Table 7, respectively). For the lower poverty line (US$ 1.90), Table 6 shows consistently negative impacts. Having been covered for at least one year reduces the proportion of households in extreme poverty by 4.3 percentage points on average (statistically significant at the 5 percent level). The effect increases to 6.9 percentage points after at least one year of coverage. It then stays constant with an estimated effect of 6.8 percentage points after at least three years of coverage. All these effects are significant at the 1 percent level.

For the US$3.20 poverty line, the effects are also negative, but lower in magnitude and without statistical significance at the standard levels. Having coverage reduces the proportion of poor households by an estimated 1.7 percentage points. This effect increases to 2.6 percentage points, after at least one year of coverage. For two years or more it drops to 2 percentage points and for at least three years it returns to 2.6 percentage points. The increase in consumption due to 3G/4G coverage therefore leads to poverty reduction, especially for the more extreme poverty line. These results imply that poorer households benefitted most from mobile broadband coverage.

The magnitude of our results can be compared with those shown by Beuermann et al. (2012) and Blumenstock et al. (2020), with the difference that they estimate the effect of access to mobile coverage rather than mobile broadband coverage. Using data from rural Peru between 2004 and 2009, Beuermann et al. (2012) find that mobile phone expansion increases real consumption by 11 percent and reduced the incidence of poverty by 8 percentage points and the incidence of extreme poverty by 5.4 percentage points. Using data from 14 rural and geographically isolated areas in the Philippines between 2016 and 2018, Blumenstock et al. (2020) find that the introduction of a new phone tower led to an increase in household income of 17 percent, and increased household expenditures by 10 percent.

# Channels of impact

Turning to the different causal channels through which access to 3G/4G translates into greater welfare, we examine if mobile broadband coverage affects labor and employment outcomes as well as prices. We find that individuals (ages 15 to 64) from households that live in areas covered by 3G/4G technologies are more likely to be in the labor force and to have wage/salaried employment. Table 8 shows a significant positive effect on labor force participation after at least two years of coverage. Similarly, those individuals who live in areas covered by 3G/4G for three years or more are more likely to work in wage/salaried jobs, but not in self-employment jobs (Table 9-11). These results are almost identical for the specifications with and without control variables. The estimates for having coverage of any length and for having it for at least one year are very close to zero and statistically insignificant. However, having coverage for at least two years increases the proportion of individuals in the labor force by 2.6 percentage points, and for at least three years, this increases to 3.3 percentage points. By the same token, the proportion of individuals who have wage/salaried employment increases by 1.4 percent when they live in areas covered by 3G/4G technologies for three years or more. These results point to labor force participation and wage/salaried employment as a likely causal 11