E-Commerce as a Driver of Gender Equity

Abstract

We study China’s Rural E-Commerce Development program, a large-scale digital infrastructure initiative, to assess its labor market and household impacts. Exploiting county-level rollout variation and panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (2012-2020), we find that the program raised female labor force participation by 3 percentage points and weekly hours by 2.5, with no comparable effects for men. It also promoted women’s entrepreneurship, enhanced intra-household bargaining power, and improved daughters’ education and health. A cost-benefit analysis indicates income gains far exceed program costs, underscoring digital infrastructure’s potential to foster gender equity and intergenerational human capital in rural China.