Mobile Technology and Productivity Growth in Small- and Medium-Scale Business Establishments in Morocco

Funded by Intel Corporation

2001-2006

A broad base of both popular and academic literature has addressed the question of “the digital divide” both with regards to individual people and entire nations.   This project problematizes this notion, by examining the actual contexts of technology adoption in a developing country.  More specifically, it focuses on how technology impacts productivity in small and medium sized business operations in Morocco . 

One key question has been whether developed nations have enjoyed greater economic growth as a result of more advanced information technology (IT).  A contrary perspective suggests that information technologies assist developing countries to “leapfrog” legacy infrastructures, innovate rapidly, and thus reap associated social and economic benefits more quickly than through older forms of industrialization.  This project attempts to investigate these countervailing claims by conducting detailed research on the adoption and effects of new technologies in the nation of Morocco .  Specifically, this project proposes to understand regional and cultural variation in the adoption of new technologies; as well as understand the relationship between mobile technologies and productivity growth in small- and medium-scale business establishments, both formal and informal, in Morocco .