Do information and communication technologies empower female workers? Evidence from Vietnam
Abstract
We study the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) adoption on female employment outcomes in Vietnam using rich firm- and individual-level data. Our identification exploits exogenous variation in ICT access driven by geographic connectivity conditions and a nationwide network upgrade in 2007. We find that ICT adoption increases the female share of employment within firms, primarily through within-firm reallocation in the formal sector. We further provide evidence consistent with a task-reallocation channel: ICT is associated with a shift in labor demand away from routine and manual tasks toward social, customer-based, and service-oriented activities, where women are more likely to have a comparative advantage.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
ICT Impact and Policies
Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Public Economics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Volume
- 262
- Pages
- 105755–105755
- Publication date
- 13 August 2026
- Language
- EN