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Using Facebook ad data to track the global digital gender gap

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  • Fatehkia, Masoomali
  • Kashyap, Ridhi
  • Weber, Ingmar

Abstract

Gender equality in access to the internet and mobile phones has become increasingly recognised as a development goal. Monitoring progress towards this goal however is challenging due to the limited availability of gender-disaggregated data, particularly in low-income countries. In this data sparse context, we examine the potential of a source of digital trace ‘big data’ – Facebook’s advertisement audience estimates – that provides aggregate data on Facebook users by demographic characteristics covering the platform’s over 2 billion users to measure and ‘nowcast’ digital gender gaps. We generate a unique country-level dataset combining ‘online’ indicators of Facebook users by gender, age and device type, ‘offline’ indicators related to a country’s overall development and gender gaps, and official data on gender gaps in internet and mobile access where available. Using this dataset, we predict internet and mobile phone gender gaps from official data using online indicators, as well as online and offline indicators. We find that the online Facebook gender gap indicators are highly correlated with official statistics on internet and mobile phone gender gaps. For internet gender gaps, models using Facebook data do better than those using offline indicators alone. Models combining online and offline variables however have the highest predictive power. Our approach demonstrates the feasibility of using Facebook data for real-time tracking of digital gender gaps. It enables us to improve geographical coverage for an important development indicator, with the biggest gains made for low-income countries for which existing data are most limited.

Suggested Citation

  • Fatehkia, Masoomali & Kashyap, Ridhi & Weber, Ingmar, 2018. "Using Facebook ad data to track the global digital gender gap," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 189-209.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:107:y:2018:i:c:p:189-209
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.03.007
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    13. Ridhi Kashyap & Masoomali Fatehkia & Reham Al Tamime & Ingmar Weber, 2020. "Monitoring global digital gender inequality using the online populations of Facebook and Google," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(27), pages 779-816.
    14. Xinxin Ma, 2023. "Internet Use and Risky Financial Market Participation: Evidence from China," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(2), pages 1-1, February.
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    16. Laetitia Gauvin & Michele Tizzoni & Simone Piaggesi & Andrew Young & Natalia Adler & Stefaan Verhulst & Leo Ferres & Ciro Cattuto, 2020. "Gender gaps in urban mobility," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Donati,Dante & Orozco Olvera,Victor Hugo & Rao,Nandan Mark, 2022. "Using Social Media to Change Gender Norms : An Experiment within Facebook Messenger in India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10199, The World Bank.
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    19. Monica Alexander & Kivan Polimis & Emilio Zagheni, 2022. "Combining Social Media and Survey Data to Nowcast Migrant Stocks in the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(1), pages 1-28, February.
    20. M Vimalkumar & Jang Bahadur Singh & Sujeet Kumar Sharma, 0. "Exploring the Multi-Level Digital Divide in Mobile Phone Adoption: A Comparison of Developing Nations," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    21. M Vimalkumar & Jang Bahadur Singh & Sujeet Kumar Sharma, 2021. "Exploring the Multi-Level Digital Divide in Mobile Phone Adoption: A Comparison of Developing Nations," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1057-1076, August.
    22. Hossain, Mobarak, 2021. "Unequal experience of COVID-induced remote schooling in four developing countries," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

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