Mobile Communications and Economic and Social Development in Latin America

This book seeks to contribute to the understanding of this phenomenon by analysing the impact of mobile telephony on social and economic development in Latin America over the past decade. The research, in which prestigious specialists have collaborated, looks at the results obtained from a wide-ranging investigation, covering regional analysis and case studies in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru.

The multidisciplinary approach of this book combines microeconomic analysis of the contribution made by mobile telephony to joint development and the reduction in poverty through the study of business models, orientated toward the so-called base of the pyramid income and the role of mobile phones in value chains in rural environments, as well as the study of the different forms of appropriating mobiles within an urban setting and their impact on youth culture.

The multiple approaches combine together in this publication with a common end in view: identifying how the rapid spread of mobile telephony has changed the relationship between social and economic agents in an emerging region, in which these relationships are established ever more frequently via wireless networks.

.