Reproducibility package for The Impact Of Mobile Money Levy On Household Welfare: Evidence From Tanzania
Overview
This paper examines the welfare effects of Tanzania's 2021 levy on mobile money transfers, a policy that sharply increased transaction costs in a country where mobile money is the primary channel for financial access and remittances. Using two waves of the Tanzania National Panel Survey (2014/15 and 2020/22) combined with high-frequency phone survey data, we implement a triple-difference identification strategy to isolate the impact of the levy on rural and urban households before and after its introduction. Our findings show that rural households—who rely more heavily on mobile money and have fewer financial alternatives—experienced a 10-18 percent decline in per capita food consumption and a significant rise in food insecurity following the levy. Robustness checks using variation in bank penetration, shock incidence, and remittance dependence support these results.
Reproducibility Package
| Repository name | URI |
|---|---|
| Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank) | https://reproducibility.worldbank.org |
Reproducibility
Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:
• OS: Windows 11 Enterprise, version 23H2
• Processor: IINTEL(R) XEON(R) PLATINUM 8562Y+ 2.80 GHz (2 processors)
• Memory available: 64 GB
Runtime: 2 minutes.
- Access the data: Datasets "National Panel Survey 2014-2015, Wave 4" and "Tanzania Panel Survey 2020-2021, Wave 5" are public but not included in the reproducibility package. Users need to gain access to the data files to be able to run the code.
- Download and place the data: Once all data are obtained, copy it to the corresponding folders as noted in the README.
- Run the code: Change the global
pathin line 9 of the do-file "00_Master" to your working directory and run it.
Data
All data sources are publicly available but not all are included in the reproducibility package. (Accessible Data)
Description
| Author | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Revocatus Paul | World Bank | rpaul4@worldbank.org |
| Dhiraj Sharma | World Bank | dsharma5@worldbank.org |
2025-09-17
Scope and coverage
| Location | Code |
|---|---|
| Tanzania | TZA |
Disclaimer
The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.
Access and rights
| Name | URI |
|---|---|
| Modified BSD3 | https://opensource.org/license/bsd-3-clause/ |
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Revocatus Paul | World Bank | rpaul4@worldbank.org |
| Reproducibility WBG | World Bank | reproducibility@worldbank.org |
Information on metadata
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reproducibility WBG | DECDI | World Bank - Development Impact Department | Verification and preparation of metadata |
2025-09-17
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