An econophysics non-monetized theory of value: The case of micro-finance in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Authors
Baer, Wolfgang
Bounfour, Ahmed
Housel, Thomas J.
Subjects
Value
Modelling
Economic theory
Modelling
Economic theory
Advisors
Date of Issue
2018
Date
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Language
Abstract
Mobile phones are radically transforming micro-finance in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Kenya, in particular. The introduction of the micro-financial transaction mobile phone application, “MPesa,” created means to facilitate micro-transactions without the need for an intermediary, such as a banking system. The purpose of this paper is to posit an econophysics model to predict the value of Mpesa for Kenyan and South African consumers. The econophysics framework posits several fitness matrices and a distance measure that can account for the concepts of mass, distance, momentum, velocity, action, and force. The authors begin with a table of the match between the physics concepts and the economic concepts followed by the vector model that utilizes these concepts for the MPesa application case. In this paper, the authors will argue that MPesa succeeded in Sub-Saharan African countries, such as Kenya, because the fit between what this group of customers needed and the solutions Safaricom’s MPesa offered was a better fit with a smaller distance to adoption than in the South African case.
Type
Article
Description
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Format
17 p.
Citation
Baer, Wolfgang, Ahmed Bounfour, and Thomas J. Housel. "An econophysics non-monetized theory of value: The case of micro-finance in Sub-Saharan Africa." Journal of Intellectual Capital 19.3 (2018): 519-535.
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.