移动电话、非农收入和农村妇女就业：来自孟加拉国的证据（英）

EVIDENCE FROM BANGLADESH Masanori Matsuura-Kannari, Shu Tian, Abu Hayat Md. Saiful Islam, and Salauddin Tauseef ADB ECONOMICSWORKING PAPER SERIES ADB Economics Working Paper Series Mobile Phones, Off-Farm Income, and Employmentof Rural Women: Evidence from Bangladesh Masanori Matsuura-Kannari (masanori_matsuura@ide.go.jp) is a PhD student at the National GraduateInstitute for Policy Studies and research fellow at theInstitute of Developing Economies-Japan ExternalTrade Organization. Shu Tian (stian@adb.org) isa principal economist at the Economic Researchand Development Impact Department, AsianDevelopment Bank. Abu Hayat Md. Saiful Islam(saiful_bau_econ@yahoo.com) is a professor atBangladesh Agricultural University. Salauddin Tauseef(s.tauseef@cgiar.org) is a research fellow at theInternational Food Policy Research Institute. Masanori Matsuura-Kannari,Shu Tian, Abu Hayat Md. Saiful Islam,and Salauddin Tauseef No. 811 | October 2025 TheADB Economics Working Paper Seriespresents research in progress to elicit commentsand encourage debate on development issuesin Asia and the Pacific. The views expressedare those of the authors and do not necessarilyreflect the views and policies of ADB orits Board of Governors or the governmentsthey represent. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO) © 2025 Asian Development Bank6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, PhilippinesTel +63 2 8632 4444; Fax +63 2 8636 2444www.adb.org Some rights reserved. Published in 2025. ISSN 2313-6537 (print), 2313-6545 (PDF)Publication Stock No. WPS250408-2DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/WPS250408-2 The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policiesof the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for anyconsequence of their use. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers does not imply that theyare endorsed or recommended by ADB in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, ADB does notintend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. This publication is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/. By using the content of this publication, you agree to be boundby the terms of this license. For attribution, translations, adaptations, and permissions, please read the provisionsand terms of use at https://www.adb.org/terms-use#openaccess. This CC license does not apply to non-ADB copyright materials in this publication. If the material is attributedto another source, please contact the copyright owner or publisher of that source for permission to reproduce it.ADB cannot be held liable for any claims that arise as a result of your use of the material. Please contact pubsmarketing@adb.org if you have questions or comments with respect to content, or if you wishto obtain copyright permission for your intended use that does not fall within these terms, or for permission to usethe ADB logo. Corrigenda to ADB publications may be found at http://www.adb.org/publications/corrigenda. ABSTRACT A persistent disparity has been observed in the social and economic development of women,particularly evident in South Asia's lower female labor force participation. This studyinvestigates how mobile phone ownership can overcome this disadvantage. Using aninstrumental variable approach and comprehensive household panel dataset from ruralBangladesh, we show that women’s mobile phone ownership is significantly associated withan increase in their off-farm income, attributable to an enhancement in the likelihood of off-farm employment. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that the adoption of mobile phoneshas the potential benefits being distributed equitably across various levels of education,wealth, and remoteness. The findings, as corroborated by a series of robustness checks,underscore the importance of digitalization in promoting inclusive development. Keywords:mobile phones, off-farm income, off-farm employment, female employment,rural, Bangladesh JEL codes:J16, O12 I.INTRODUCTION Women's empowerment has been centered on discussions about gender inequality. In developingeconomies, women have been behind men in various contexts, such as the labor market, socialprotection, education, gender-based violence, and household resource allocation (Duflo, 2012;Heath, 2014; Pesando, 2022; Verma and Imelda, 2023; Xu et al., 2022). For instance, attitudesregarding women in the labor market are less progressive in developing countries, resulting inlow female labor force participation (Jayachandran, 2015). Because an increase in labor supplyle