Abstract: This paper examines the impact of mobile phone access on the containment of an epidemic. We study this question in the context of the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Liberia. Combining proprietary data on cell phone towers and EVD cases, we estimate a high-resolution radio-wave propagation model that uses variations in terrain topography and the spatial distribution of cell phone towers to predict signal strength on the ground. We then employ a regression discontinuity design that compares villages at the margin of the signal strength threshold required for coverage. We find that having access to cell phone coverage leads to a 10.8 percentage point reduction in the likelihood that a village has an EVD case. Results from a novel survey collected following the epidemic suggest that this is mostly explained by cellphone access facilitating treatment provision rather than improving access to preventive care. We exclude an information channel.
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