Buffering Overhead Shocks: How Digital Payments Moderate Energy Costs and Labor Productivity in Informal Enterprises in Cambodia (Acta Innovations)

Summary

• Computer adoption among Cambodian informal enterprises is minimal at 8.96%, while digital payments via mobile devices reach 55.77%.p.1
• The informal sector accounts for roughly 88.3% of the active workforce in Cambodia.p.1
• The full survey covered 1,759 informal enterprises; regression samples are N = 347 for OLS and N = 273 for 2SLS across 52 spatial clusters.p.4
• In OLS Model 2, computer use has a coefficient of 2.116 and the digital money and electricity cost interaction is 0.491.p.6
• The crossover point at which digital payment adopters gain a productivity advantage occurs at ln(EperL) of about 11.59.p.7
• 2SLS estimates give an interaction coefficient of 0.848 and a computer use coefficient of 1.573.p.7

Key insights

1. Computer hardware use has a large, significant positive effect on sales per worker (2.116 in Model 2).p.6
2. In Model 1, the unconditional coefficient on digital money adoption is negative (-1.978).p.6
3. Above the crossover threshold, digital payment adopters gain a productivity advantage by buffering working-capital liquidity.p.7
4. Net gains from digital payments accrue mainly to the upper decile of energy-intensive firms, while small subsistence vendors face adoption frictions.p.7
5. The Durbin-Wu-Hausman test (F = 4.499) confirms endogeneity in OLS, supporting the 2SLS approach.p.8
6. Digital payments act as a working-capital buffer, letting informal firms expand production with more energy use without cash constraints.p.9