As an economist and self-styled BOP researcher, I've always been interested in the effect of technology on efficiency, price competition, and cost-of-living at the BOP. WRI, through its now-sunset Digital Dividend project, studied the effect of technology on low-income communities for years, and results pointed to a consistently positive relationship between access to information and greater efficiency, lower COL, etc. Mobile phones, in fact, have always been a favorite technology around here - low start-up cost, relatively minor literacy barrier, shared-use potential, etc. A great BOP technology - and one that's growing fast.

So you'll understand my excitement when I ran across the GSM Association's report, "Tax and the Digital Divide." A robust, regression-based analysis of the effect of taxation on mobile phone penetration!? A BOP economist dream come true.