IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ozl/journl/v21y2018i1p45-74.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digitalisation and Women’s Workforce Participation in the Indo-Pacific

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy Watson

    (Australian National University)

  • Michael Corliss

    (Centre for Labour Market Research)

  • Michelle Le

    (Australian National University)

Abstract

Between 2000 and 2016 the gap between women and men’s workforce participation in the Indo-Pacific has narrowed, while indicators of digital connectivity and Internet use have grown rapidly. We find a robust and statistically significant correlation between Internet use and women’s workforce participation controlling for country fixed effects, a time trend, and numerous other controls. The most conservative estimate suggests that, on average, growth in Internet use has been associated with around four-fifths of the increase in women’s participation in the Indo-Pacific between 2000 and 2016. Instrumental variables estimation finds a stronger positive association between women’s workforce participation and exogenously determined Internet use. Despite finding a positive association between Internet use and women’s participation, a number of barriers exist that are preventing women from fully sharing in the benefits of the digital economy. Based on findings from the G20 Taskforce on Digitalisation, we consider a range of measures that policymakers in the Indo-Pacific can pursue to address these barriers.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Watson & Michael Corliss & Michelle Le, 2018. "Digitalisation and Women’s Workforce Participation in the Indo-Pacific," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 21(1), pages 45-74.
    • Handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:21:y:2018:i:1:p:45-74
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE211watson.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Florence Jaumotte, 2003. "Female Labour Force Participation: Past Trends and Main Determinants in OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 376, OECD Publishing.
    2. Tiago V. de V. Cavalcanti & José Tavares, 2008. "Assessing the "Engines of Liberation": Home Appliances and Female Labor Force Participation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 81-88, February.
    3. Claudia Olivetti, 2014. "The Female Labor Force and Long-Run Development: The American Experience in Comparative Perspective," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital in History: The American Record, pages 161-197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Sucharita Sinha Mukherjee, 2013. "Women's Empowerment and Gender Bias in the Birth and Survival of Girls in Urban India," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 1-28, January.
    5. Frey, Carl Benedikt & Osborne, Michael A., 2017. "The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 254-280.
    6. World Bank, 2017. "World Development Indicators 2017," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 26447.
    7. Olivier Thévenon, 2013. "Drivers of Female Labour Force Participation in the OECD," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 145, OECD Publishing.
    8. Kory Kroft & Devin G. Pope, 2014. "Does Online Search Crowd Out Traditional Search and Improve Matching Efficiency? Evidence from Craigslist," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(2), pages 259-303.
    9. World Bank, 2018. "World Development Report 2018 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2018]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28340.
    10. Peter Kuhn & Mikal Skuterud, 2004. "Internet Job Search and Unemployment Durations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 218-232, March.
    11. Steven N. Durlauf, 2009. "The Rise and Fall of Cross-Country Growth Regressions," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(5), pages 315-333, Supplemen.
    12. Schultz, T. Paul, 1995. "Human Capital and Economic Development," 1994 Conference, August 22-29, 1994, Harare, Zimbabwe 183410, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Klasen, Stephan & Pieters, Janneke, 2012. "Push or Pull? Drivers of Female Labor Force Participation during India's Economic Boom," IZA Discussion Papers 6395, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Report 2012 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2012]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4391.
    15. Joyce P. Jacobsen, 2011. "The Role of Technological Change in Increasing Gender Equity with a Focus on Information and Communications Technologyy," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2011-007, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
    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. Nkoumou Ngoa, Gaston Brice & Song, Jacques Simon, 2021. "Female participation in African labor markets: The role of information and communication technologies," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9).

    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. Prathi Seneviratne, 2017. "Female Labour Force Participation and Economic Development in Labour Abundant Countries: Evidence from Sri Lanka," Working Papers 2017-02, Carleton College, Department of Economics.
    2. Seneviratne, Prathi, 2020. "Gender wage inequality during Sri Lanka’s post-reform growth: A distributional analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Rita K. Almeida & Mariana Viollaz, 2023. "Women in paid employment: a role for public policies and social norms in Guatemala," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 252-279, July.
    4. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Guillaume Vandenbroucke, 2017. "Family Economics Writ Large," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1346-1434, December.
    5. Isis Gaddis & Stephan Klasen, 2014. "Economic development, structural change, and women’s labor force participation:," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 639-681, July.
    6. Sonali Das & Ms. Sonali Jain-Chandra & Ms. Kalpana Kochhar & Naresh Kumar, 2015. "Women Workers in India: Why So Few Among So Many?," IMF Working Papers 2015/055, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Amaia Altuzarra & Catalina Gálvez-Gálvez & Ana González-Flores, 2019. "Economic Development and Female Labour Force Participation: The Case of European Union Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, April.
    8. Chakraborty, Lekha S & Singh, Yadawendra, 2018. "Fiscal Policy, as the “Employer of Last Resort”: Impact of Direct fiscal transfer (MGNREGA) on Labour Force Participation Rates in India," MPRA Paper 85225, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Manuel Santos Silva & Stephan Klasen, 2021. "Gender inequality as a barrier to economic growth: a review of the theoretical literature," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 581-614, September.
    10. Ali Fakih & Pascal Ghazalian, 2015. "Female employment in MENA’s manufacturing sector: the implications of firm-related and national factors," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 37-69, February.
    11. Wang, Huijuan & Ding, Lin & Guan, Rong & Xia, Yan, 2020. "Effects of advancing internet technology on Chinese employment: a spatial study of inter-industry spillovers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    12. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Guillaume Vandenbroucke, 2017. "Family Economics Writ Large," Working Papers wp2018_1706, CEMFI.
    13. Yoko Nakagaki, 2018. "Inverse J-Shaped Relationship between Fertility and Gender Equality: Different Relationships of the Two Variables According to Income Levels," Working Papers 165, JICA Research Institute.
    14. Piotr Lewandowski & Pawel Chrostek & Jan Baran & Iga Magda & Maciej Lis & Anna Pankowiec & Piotr Szczerba & Maciej Bitner & Magdalena Kaminska, 2014. "Employment in Poland 2013. Labour in the Age of Structural Change," Books and Reports published by IBS, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych, number zwp2013 edited by Piotr Lewandowski & Iga Magda, january.
    15. Siegmann, K.A. & Majid, H., 2014. "Empowering growth in Pakistan?," ISS Working Papers - General Series 595, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    16. Matias Busso & Dario Romero Fonseca, 2015. "Female Labor Force Participation in Latin America: Patterns and Explanations," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0187, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    17. Ilhom Abdulloev & Ira N Gang & Myeong-Su Yun, 2014. "Migration, Education and the Gender Gap in Labour Force Participation," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(4), pages 509-526, September.
    18. Shoumitro Chatterjee & Tom S. Vogl, 2016. "Growth and Childbearing in the Short- and Long-Run," Working Papers sc_tv_growth_fertility.pd, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    19. Nguyen Thang Dao & Julio Dávila & Angela Greulich, 2021. "The education gender gap and the demographic transition in developing countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 431-474, April.
    20. Gunatilaka, Ramani., 2013. "To work or not to work? : Factors holding women back from market work in Sri Lanka," ILO Working Papers 994838403402676, International Labour Organization.

    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:ozl:journl:v:21:y:2018:i:1:p:45-74. 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: Sandie Rawnsley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/becurau.html .

    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.