Do information and communication technologies empower female workers? Evidence from Vietnam
Journal of Public Economics · 2026 · Heiwai Tang、Yao Wang、Victoria Wenxin Xie、Natalie Chun
Abstract
We study the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) adoption on female employment outcomes in Vietnam using rich firm- and individual-level data. Our identification exploits exogenous variation in ICT access driven by geographic connectivity conditions and a nationwide network upgrade in 2007. We find that ICT adoption increases the female share of employment within firms, primarily through within-firm reallocation in the formal sector. We further provide evidence consistent with a task-reallocation channel: ICT is associated with a shift in labor demand away from routine and manual tasks toward social, customer-based, and service-oriented activities, where women are more likely to have a comparative advantage.