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

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.