She’s Connected: The Impact of Jio on the Digital Gender Gap in India

Abstract

This thesis investigates the relationship between the affordability of mobile internet and internet connectivity for women in India. The digital gender gap (or gender equality in access to the internet and mobile phones) is an increasingly important marker of development. The critical question is whether affordability is the leading barrier women face to mobile internet adoption. A challenge to answering this question is finding gender-disaggregated data and identifying a setting that allows researchers to disentangle the role of affordability relative to other potential barriers. This thesis helps overcome both challenges, combining data on monthly wireless subscribers with national survey data while controlling for state-wise economic indicators, including the Human Development Index, Gender Development Index, and Gender Inequality Index, to examine the correlation between low-cost mobile internet and the digital gender gap. As anticipated, there are many important factors that influence the digital gender gap, including standard of living, education, income, and safety and security. The results indicate that the increased and robust diffusion of affordable internet through the low-cost provider, Jio, is closing the digital gender gap; however, the effect on the digital gender gap is more substantial in states with high HDI and particularly for rural subscribers.