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Description
Child marriage and teen pregnancy remain prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the impact of mobile broadband internet (3G) expansion – a key driver of social media access – on these outcomes. We combine geo-referenced data on 3G coverage with individual-level marriage and fertility data from over 500,000 women-year observations across 20 sub-Saharan African countries between 2011 and 2022. Using two-way fixed effects, event study analysis, a stacked difference-in-differences approach, and an instrumental variables strategy, we find that 3G coverage significantly reduces the likelihood of child marriage and teen pregnancy. Adolescent girls exposed to 3G are between 1 and 6 percentage points less likely to marry and approximately 1 percentage point less likely to give birth, while no significant effects are observed for older women. The effects are strongest among wealthier and more educated adolescent girls, who are more likely to adopt digital technologies early. Exploratory analyses suggest that increased access to information about family planning, shifting gender attitudes, and behavioral changes – such as greater contraceptive use – serve as key mechanisms. Our findings imply that the expansion of mobile broadband may be more effective in reducing early marriage and fertility than many conventional family planning interventions.
| Keyword | Education and Health |
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