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Title: "Is the Phone Mightier than the Virus? Cell Phone Access and Epidemic Containment Efforts"
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of mobile phone access on the containment of an
epidemic. We study this question in the context of the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
outbreak in Liberia. Combining novel data on cellphone towers and EVD cases, we
estimate a high-resolution radio-wave propagation model that uses variations in terrain
topography and the spatial distribution of cellphone towers to predict signal strength on
the ground. We then employ a regression discontinuity design that compares villages at
the margin of the signal strength threshold required for coverage. We find that having
access to cellphone coverage leads to a 10.8 percentage point reduction in the likelihood
that a village has an EVD case. Results from a novel survey collected following the
epidemic suggest that this is mostly explained by cellphone access facilitating treatment
Provision.
(with Robert Gonzalez)
Please contact Alejandro Estefan for information.