Identifier

1109

Document Type

Discussion Paper

Date of Paper

Fall 9-4-2024

Abstract

Access to smartphones and mobile internet is increasingly necessary to participate in the modern economy. Yet women significantly lag men in digital access, especially in lower-income settings with gender gaps that span other dimensions - and where digital gaps threaten to deepen existing analog inequities. We study the short- and long-term effects of a large-scale state-sponsored program in India that aimed to close digital gender gaps by transferring free smartphones to women while constructing 4G towers to bring rural areas online. The program was well implemented, reversing gender gaps in smartphone ownership in the short run. However, many women lost ownership and gender gaps in use quickly worsened as men made use of the new phones. Nearly 5 years after the program began, we find limited evidence of persistent effects across a range of outcomes, including phone ownership and use, gender norms, access to information, and local economic activity, although we do find some evidence of sectoral reallocation in the labor market. Despite widespread increase in smartphone adoption across households, digital gender gaps persist and were not affected by the program. Our findings suggest that in gender-unequal, resource-constrained settings, addressing affordability alone may not close digital gender gaps.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for expert research assistance and management from Thomas van den Aarssen, Hemawathy Balarama, Shreya Chandra, Vidushi Dhawan, Akshat Goel, Aashima Goyal, Prakash Gupta, Ranae Jabri, Harsh Jaiswal, Erik Jorgensen, Nikita Kohli, Ankesh Kumar, Shreya Mathur, Urvi Naik, Savannah Noray, Fatema Patel, Shehanas Pahzoor, Rashi Sabherwal, Sonya Seuter, Abhishek Sharma, Jillian Stallman, Natalie Theys, Tejita Tiwari, Tanya Vaidya, Balasai Vanukuri, and Rosemary Zhang. We also thank the exceptional data collection teams at Inclusion Economics India Centre and ID Insight. This research was supported by funds from Pivotal Ventures, the Social Science Research Council’s Mercury Project, USAID Development Innovations Ventures, the National Science Foundation Grant Number 1949522, the Gender, Growth, and Labour Markets in Low Income Countries Programme, the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy, and the Women’s Economic Empowerment and Digital Finance Initiative. Data collection protocols were approved by IRBs at Harvard University (IRB17-0987), Yale University (2000025938, 2000032964) and the Institute for Financial Management and Research India. The study, including a pre-analysis plan, is registered in the 3IE Registry for International Development Impact Evaluations (study ID RIDIE-STUDY-ID-64be2e93463dc).

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