IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wrk/wrkesp/09.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do mobile phones empower women? A perspective from rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Jingjing

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

Empowerment for girls and women, Goal 5 for the Sustainable Development Goals, is the key for economic development. As mobile phones become cheaper and more prevalent, a growing number of researchers are investigating their impact on women's empowerment. Most previous research has relied on interviews and cross-sectional data, so their conclusion limited to the association rather than establishing the causal relationship between mobile phones and female empowerment. This paper used Indian Human Development Survey 2005 and 2011-2012 to study the association between mobile phone ownership and women's empowerment in rural India. Then difference in- difference strategy was applied to identify the causal impact of village mobile phone service installation on female empowerment. Like previous studies, the results from this paper suggest that mobile phone ownership was associated with higher women's empowerment. Moreover, mobile phone service installation increased women's involvement in decision-making process but it decreased female labour force participation and contraceptive usage in rural India.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Jingjing, 2021. "Do mobile phones empower women? A perspective from rural India," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 09, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:09
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/wmesp/manage/9_-_jingjing_chen.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gina Porter & Kate Hampshire & Albert Abane & Alister Munthali & Elsbeth Robson & Ariane De Lannoy & Augustine Tanle & Samuel Owusu, 2020. "Mobile phones, gender, and female empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa: studies with African youth," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 180-193, January.
    2. Duncan Thomas, 1990. "Intra-Household Resource Allocation: An Inferential Approach," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(4), pages 635-664.
    3. David Cuberes & Marc Teignier, 2016. "Aggregate Effects of Gender Gaps in the Labor Market: A Quantitative Estimate," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(1), pages 1-32.
    4. Diwakar Mohan & Jean Juste Harrisson Bashingwa & Nicki Tiffin & Diva Dhar & Nicola Mulder & Asha George & Amnesty E LeFevre, 2020. "Does having a mobile phone matter? Linking phone access among women to health in India: An exploratory analysis of the National Family Health Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Duncan Thomas, 1993. "The Distribution of Income and Expenditure within the Household," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 29, pages 109-135.
    6. Shatanjaya Dasgupta, 2019. "Impact of exposure to mass media on female empowerment: evidence from India," International Journal of Development Issues, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 18(2), pages 243-258, June.
    7. Ranjula Bali Swain & Fan Yang Wallentin, 2009. "Does microfinance empower women? Evidence from self-help groups in India," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 541-556.
    8. repec:adr:anecst:y:1993:i:29:p:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    10. Jack Nasar & Peter Hecht & Richard Wener, 2007. "‘Call if You Have Trouble’: Mobile Phones and Safety among College Students," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 863-873, December.
    11. Valentina Rotondi & Ridhi Kashyap & Luca Maria Pesando & Simone Spinelli & Francesco C. Billari, 2020. "Leveraging mobile phones to attain sustainable development," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(24), pages 13413-13420, June.
    12. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    13. Francesco Billari & Valentina Rotondi & Jenny Trinitapoli, 2020. "Mobile phones, digital inequality, and fertility: Longitudinal evidence from Malawi," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 42(37), pages 1057-1096.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rajkhowa, Pallavi & Qaim, Matin, 2022. "Mobile phones, women's physical mobility, and contraceptive use in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    2. Fernandez, Antonia & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2017. "Shared agency: The dominant spouse’s impact on education expenditure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 182-197.
    3. Grillos, Tara, 2018. "Women’s participation in environmental decision-making: Quasi-experimental evidence from northern Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 115-130.
    4. Antonia Grohmann & Annekathrin Schoofs, 2018. "Financial Literacy and Intra-Household Decision Making: Evidence from Rwanda," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1720, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Mara José Montenegro Guerra & Sandeep Mohapatra & Brent Swallow, 2019. "What influence do empowered women have? Land and the reality of women’s relative power in Peru," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1225-1255, December.
    6. Han, Wenjing & Zhang, Xiaoling & Zhang, Zhengfeng, 2019. "The role of land tenure security in promoting rural women’s empowerment: Empirical evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 280-289.
    7. Astrid Sneyers & Anneleen Vandeplas, 2013. "Girl Power in Agricultural Production: How Much Does it Yield? A Case-Study on the Dairy Sector in India," LICOS Discussion Papers 34113, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    8. chatterjee, susmita, 2017. "Empowerment translated to transition," MPRA Paper 80067, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Luca Maria Pesando & Valentina Rotondi & Manuela Stranges & Ridhi Kashyap & Francesco C. Billari, 2021. "The Internetization of International Migration," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(1), pages 79-111, March.
    10. O'Hara, Corey & Clement, Floriane, 2018. "Power as agency: A critical reflection on the measurement of women’s empowerment in the development sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 111-123.
    11. Cherchye, Laurens & Chiappori, Pierre-André & De Rock, Bram & Ringdal, Charlotte & Vermeulen, Frederic, 2021. "Feed the Children," IZA Discussion Papers 14687, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Kochar, Anjini & Nagabhushana, Closepet & Sarkar, Ritwik & Shah, Rohan & Singh, Geeta, 2022. "Financial access and women's role in household decisions: Empirical evidence from India's National Rural Livelihoods project," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    13. Madhuri Mahato & Julie Vardhan, 2021. "Discourses by Didis of Community Kitchens: A Case on Women Empowerment," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 10(2), pages 145-157, August.
    14. Raymond B. Frempong & David Stadelmann, 2017. "Does Female Education have a Bargaining Effect on Household Welfare? Evidence from Ghana and Uganda," CREMA Working Paper Series 2017-08, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    15. Jere R. Behrman, 1994. "Intra-family Distribution in Developing Countries," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 253-296.
    16. Agnes R. Quisumbing & John A. Maluccio, 2003. "Resources at Marriage and Intrahousehold Allocation: Evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and South Africa," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(3), pages 283-327, July.
    17. Danquah, Michael & Iddrisu, Abdul Malik & Boakye, Ernest Owusu & Owusu, Solomon, 2021. "Do gender wage differences within households influence women's empowerment and welfare? Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 916-932.
    18. Sridevi Samineni & Kandela Ramesh, 2023. "Measuring the Impact of Microfinance on Economic Enhancement of Women: Analysis with Special Reference to India," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 24(5), pages 1076-1091, October.
    19. Hillesland, Marya & Kaaria, Susan & Mane, Erdgin & Alemu, Mihret & Slavchevska, Vanya, 2022. "Does a joint United Nations microfinance ‘plus’ program empower female farmers in rural Ethiopia? Evidence using the pro-WEAI," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    20. Dauphin, Anyck & El Lahga, Abdel-Rahmen & Fortin, Bernard & Lacroix, Guy, 2006. "Choix de consommation des ménages en présence de plusieurs décideurs," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 82(1), pages 87-118, mars-juin.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender equality ; empower women ; mobile phones ; decision making power ; freedom of movement JEL Classification: J12 ; J13 ; J16;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:09. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Margaret Nash (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dewaruk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.