| In a world where societies are increasingly benefiting from new waves of technological progress,gender equality continues to constitute a global priority.The international community has recognized that women’s economic emergence is crucial to ensuring human rights and sustainable development.Although traditional approaches have been long prioritized to tackle gender issues,a growing body of research has recognized the need for revitalization.In most impoverished nations,women have failed to secure further economic rights.Consequently,they are compelled to engage in vulnerable employment,often for survival purposes,as they face tremendous obstacles to obtain decent and productive work.High levels of labor force participation across the region are most likely to reflect a lack of decent work,stable income,social security,and access to resources.Following the rapid expansion of the Internet,a growing number of nations are transitioning to an Internet-based economy（digital economy）,where data has become a production input and has begun to reorganize traditional factors.The ubiquity of the Internet has enabled the emergence of associated technologies,having a multiplier effect on societies: promoting job creation,the emergence of new business models,labor development,entrepreneurship,and innovation.Therefore,the Internet and Internet-enabled technologies can serve as a potential catalyst for women’s economic emergence in low-income countries.Our knowledge of individual economic participation in the context of technological advancement converging towards work condition improvement,economic development,and poverty alleviation,remains limited and little explored.This thesis investigates whether the Internet and associated technologies could enhance women’s economic participation as well as boost productive and decent employment from two general perspectives: women as workers and women as entrepreneurs.This thesis consists of five chapters,divided into three main parts: introductory,fundamental,and extended aspect.The first chapter consists of introducing the research problem,evaluating the objectives,and discussing the significance of the study.The study offers an innovative approach to women’s economic empowerment in low-income countries,mostly located in Sub-Saharan Africa.Internet technologies are considered instruments of growth and sustainable development.The core aspect of Internet technologies,that is,Internet use,is explored in Chapter 2.An extensive literature review is conducted on female labor force participation and its drivers and the Internet.The theoretical framework explores the behavioral aspect of female labor force participation（neoclassical labor supply）;the fact that technological changes（based on the total factor of productivity model）,namely information technologies,can be skilled-biased,hence complementary to skilled labor,resulting in enhancing workers productivity.Moreover,to address the lack of understanding,the author built a detailed conceptual framework exploring the causal mechanism between Internet use and labor force participation,based on a hypothetico-deductive approach.Findings show that Internet use represents an incentive for entrepreneurial cognition,resulting in various forms of digital entrepreneurship;it additionally contributes to increasing human capital through knowledge acquisition.An empirical analysis is carried out to explore the relationship between Internet use and female labor force participation across 131 countries,classified according to income levels,by applying Pooled Ordinary Least Squares（OLS）,Fixed Effects（FE）,and System Generalized Method of Moments（SGMM）panel estimations over the period 1997-2017.Pre-estimation analyses suggested implementing a different technique for the low-income group: the Autoregressive Distributed Lag（ARDL）model.In this Chapter 3,an assessment of women as business owners through a SubSaharan African low-income lens is conducted.Although Sub-Saharan Africa produces most female entrepreneurs globally,women-owned businesses tend to underperform,in part due to lack of financing,skills,and limited access to markets.The author empirically tested the causal relationship between Internet-enabled trade（e-commerce）and vulnerable female employment,given that it considers own-account and informal workers.A standard panel data approach is applied to OECD economies to conduct a cross-country comparison.The entire sample consists of a panel of 576 observations across 30 countries for the period 2006-2017: low-income countries comprise 288 observations for six countries（quarter）;OECD includes 288 observations for twenty-four economies（annual）.The estimation technique applied for OECD consists of Pooled Ordinary Least Squares（OLS）,Fixed Effects（FE）,and System Generalized Method of Moments（SGMM）.The Autoregressive Distributed Lag（ARDL）model appears the most efficient in estimating the low-income category model with the Dynamic Fixed Effects（DFE）technique.Findings can be divided into "Internet use and female labor participation",and "vulnerable female employment and e-commerce".The analysis has generated mixed results for the causal relationship between female labor force participation and Internet use.Results in OLS and FE models have produced the expected outcome for Internet use,implying a positive association with female labor force participation.However,the SGMM approach,which improves overall efficiency,generated a relatively weak result for the other regions.Alternatively,the outcome of the PMG estimator（low-income countries）suggested that Internet use can explain female labor force variation in the long-run.On the other hand,evidence shows that vulnerable female employment is affected differently in OECD and low-income economies.The three estimators for ecommerce（Internet penetration,mobile phone ownership,and fixed broadband）exhibit weak predictive power when combined.However,evidence for OECD countries confirms that Internet penetration decreases women’s involvement in vulnerable employment in the long-run.The ARDL approach indicates that the model with fewer control variables generates relatively efficient results.Empirical findings have demonstrated that women are most likely to be positively impacted by mobile technology.Chapter 4 investigates the implications of digital trade in services on women as entrepreneurs in a specific low-income Sub-Saharan African country,DR Congo.Given the emerging nature of digital trade in services and lack of data,a hypotheticodeductive approach is preferred to explore the potential causal relationship.In an era where borders disappear in the virtual world,women entrepreneurs in DR Congo have the opportunity to reach international markets and integrate global value chains through digital trade in services.Further research is required on this emerging topic.Evidence has corroborated that there are tremendous opportunities in the sphere of Internet technologies for women in low-income economies,whether it is as workers or business owners.Reasoning from these facts,a combination of factors needs to be implemented to begin the process.Recommendations for future research and policymakers,as well as the author’s original contribution,are presented in Chapter 5. |
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