We recently completed the first part of a research project that aimed to test whether or not real-time mobile data could be used as a means to predict future macroeconomic trends like interest rates, inflation and GDP per capita in African countries. While the paper itself makes no definitive conclusions, it is the first in a series of long-needed experiments that will test the statistical reliability of mobile population sampling as a means for financial analysis and forecasting in countries where infrastructure is unstable.

This research was conducted on behalf of one of our portfolio company Market Atlas and supported by a grant from the Knight Foundation’s Prototype Fund.

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