IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v47y2023i9s0308596123001350.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does social media improve women's political empowerment in Africa?

Author

Listed:
  • Ongo Nkoa, Bruno Emmanuel
  • Ondoua Beyene, Blaise
  • Ngo Nsoa Simb, Jacky Flore
  • Ngnouwal Eloundou, Georges

Abstract

The use of social media has grown significantly in Africa over the past two decades and is the subject of recent literature. In this article, we examine its direct and indirect effects on women's political empowerment (WPE) in Africa. Based on a sample of 45 African countries, we specify and estimate a panel data model using the Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) method and the System Generalized Method of Moment (S-GMM) over the period 2009–2019. Our results show that social media, as measured by the Facebook penetration rate, significantly increases WPE. Their effects are channeled through the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), electricity consumption, human capital and political stability. The robustness of the results is proven by alternative measures of WPE and social media. In order to strengthen WPE, public policies must increase women's access to social media.

Suggested Citation

  • Ongo Nkoa, Bruno Emmanuel & Ondoua Beyene, Blaise & Ngo Nsoa Simb, Jacky Flore & Ngnouwal Eloundou, Georges, 2023. "Does social media improve women's political empowerment in Africa?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:47:y:2023:i:9:s0308596123001350
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102624
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596123001350
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102624?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2018. "ICT, Financial Access and Gender Inclusion in the Formal Economic Sector: Evidence from Africa," The African Finance Journal, Africagrowth Institute, vol. 20(2), pages 45-65.
    2. Asongu, Simplice & Amari, Mouna & Jarboui, Anis & Mouakhar, Khaireddine, 2021. "ICT dynamics for gender inclusive intermediary education: Minimum poverty and inequality thresholds in developing countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5).
    3. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    4. Jha, Chandan Kumar & Kodila-Tedika, Oasis, 2020. "Does social media promote democracy? Some empirical evidence," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 271-290.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jacques Simon Song & Hervé William Mougnol A Ekoula & Georges Ngnouwal Eloundou, 2024. "Alcohol consumption in developing countries: Does information and communication technology (ICT) diffusion matter?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 1210-1240, March.
    2. Bruno Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa & Jacques Simon Song & Blaise Ondoua Beyene & Georges Ngnouwal Eloundou, 2023. "Does social media drive remittances in Africa?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 35(4), pages 429-443, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Atif Awad, 2023. "Information and communication technologies role in alleviating poverty in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Impacts and transmission channels," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 1149-1165, April.
    2. Ofori, Isaac K. & Figari, Francesco, 2022. "Economic Globalisation and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Contingencies and Policy-Relevant Thresholds of Governance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Forthcomi, pages 1-1.
    3. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2023. "Foreign Direct Investment, Information Technology, And Total Factor Productivity Dynamics In Sub‐Saharan Africa," World Affairs, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 186(2), pages 469-506, June.
    4. Simplice A. Asongu, 2020. "Financial Access and Productivity Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(12), pages 1029-1041, September.
    5. Ouinsou, Christ Arsène & Chabossou, Augustin Foster Comlan, 2024. "New technologies and income inequalities into Sub-Saharan Africa: Using a new technological indicator," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9).
    6. Mongi Lassoued, 2021. "Control of corruption, microfinance, and income inequality in MENA countries: evidence from panel data," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(7), pages 1-19, July.
    7. Song, Jacques Simon & Yamben, Michel Freddy Harry & Atanga, Donald Ferdinand Okere, 2024. "Security fragility in developing countries: Do ICT matter?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 259-280.
    8. Ofori, Isaac K & Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Y. & Ojong, Nathanael, 2022. "Foreign Direct Investment and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Energy Efficiency Contingencies and Thresholds," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 1-58.
    9. Ofori, Isaac K. & Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Y. & Ojong, Nathanael, 2022. "Foreign Direct Investment and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Energy Efficiency Contingencies and Thresholds," MPRA Paper 115379, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Nov 2022.
    10. Asongu, Simplice A. & Odhiambo, Nicholas M., 2020. "Foreign direct investment, information technology and economic growth dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    11. Simplice A. Asongu & Paul N. Acha-Anyi, 2020. "Enhancing ICT for productivity in sub-Saharan Africa: Thresholds for complementary policies," African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(7), pages 831-845, November.
    12. Isaac K. Ofori & Francesco Figari, 2022. "Economic Globalisation and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Contingencies and Policy-Relevant Thresholds of Governance," Working Papers 22/053, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    13. Ofori, Isaac K. & Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Y. & Ojong, Nathanael, 2023. "Foreign direct investment and inclusive green growth in Africa: Energy efficiency contingencies and thresholds," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    14. Adem Yavuz Elveren & Hale Kirmizioglu, 2022. "Financial Development and Female Labor Income Share: Evidence from Global Data," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 8(1), pages 35-49, June.
    15. Isaac Ofoeda & Lordina Amoah & Ebenezer Bugri Anarfo & Joshua Yindenaba Abor, 2024. "Financial inclusion and economic growth: What roles do institutions and financial regulation play?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 832-848, January.
    16. Isaac K. Ofori & Emmanuel Y. Gbolonyo & Nathanael Ojong, 2022. "Foreign Direct Investment and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Energy Efficiency Contingencies and Thresholds," Working Papers 22/089, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    17. Talla Fokam, Dieu Ne Dort & Kamga, Benjamin Fomba & Nchofoung, Tii N., 2023. "Information and communication technologies and employment in developing countries: Effects and transmission channels," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8).
    18. Awad, Atif & Albaity, Mohamed, 2022. "ICT and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Transmission channels and effects," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8).
    19. Ofori, Isaac K. & Figari, Francesco, 2022. "Economic Globalisation and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Contingencies and Policy-Relevant Thresholds of Governance," MPRA Paper 114377, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Mansour Naser Alraja & Faris Alshubiri & Basel M. Khashab & Mahmood Shah, 2023. "The financial access, ICT trade balance and dark and bright sides of digitalization nexus in OECD countries," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(2), pages 177-209, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; Social media; S-GMM; Women political empowerment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:47:y:2023:i:9:s0308596123001350. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.