Digital infrastructure and employment inequality: Evidence from the Broadband China Strategy

Exploiting the phased rollout of the Broadband China Strategy as a quasi-natural experiment within a staggered difference-in-differences framework, we investigate the causal impact of digital infrastructure development on employment inequality. Utilizing microdata from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we evaluate labor market disparities across gender and residential status. The results indicate that digital infrastructure development significantly mitigates employment inequality, specifically by narrowing the gender gaps in employment probability, working hours, and promotion satisfaction, as well as the urban-rural gap in working hours. Mechanism analyses reveal that these equalizing effects are primarily driven by enhanced job flexibility, the structural expansion of the tertiary sector, and the alleviation of information frictions. Furthermore, heterogeneity analyses demonstrate that the reduction in employment inequality is more pronounced in the eastern region, areas with higher human capital, and municipalities directly under the central government.