Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

With the introduction of mobile money in India beginning in 2010, we wanted to research empirical understandings about the role of mobile money in replacing cash among migrant workers in South India. We also wanted to understand the role of middlemen in this broad ecosystem. Lastly we wanted to understand whether the users feel a sense of trust when using mobile money. We find that on average, mobile money users' transfer of both money per month and emergency money as compared to non-mobile users was significantly higher. There was also greater interstate transfer of cash by mobile money users. Our regression results clearly show that mobile money users send about 64% more than non- mobile users. Also mobile money users send about 44% more emergency money than non-mobile users. Its usage also increases with age, education level, and marital status.