Mobile money, transfers and social networks: A field study of the use of Tigo Money in Guatemala

Sammanfattning: This paper analyses the impact mobile money service Tigo Money has on households’ transfer behavior within social networks. To be precise, the paper investigates if household that use Tigo Money 1) send and receive more transfers, 2) if they do this with an expanded network, and 3) if they send and receive more transfers for emergency reasons, compared to non-using households. To answer these questions, a survey was conducted in two municipalities in Guatemala. The data was analyzed using OLS estimations. The results show a significant positive correlation between the use of Tigo Money and the dependent variables, resulting in increased transfer activity among these households. These findings are in line with previous research, and indicate that Tigo Money-using households should handle negative income shocks better. A sensitivity analysis was performed. The models perform worse for the rural subsample, but the results are robust across all estimations for urban and semi-rural subsamples.