Author ORCID Identifier
Mukul Kumar: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2963-4288
Debashis Saha: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0523-9646
Abstract
Despite continuous efforts through various policy interventions, gender inequality remains a significant concern for governments globally. As they increasingly adopt information and communication technologies, e-government development may offer a pathway to reduce gender disparities. Using panel data for 115 countries from 2003 to 2022, this study applies two-way fixed effects to examine the impact of e-government development and of its three dimensions, namely telecommunication infrastructure, online services, and human capital, on gender inequality. Results indicate that stronger e-government development is associated with lower gender inequality at the national level. While telecommunication infrastructure and human capital consistently exhibit negative association with gender inequality, effect of online services become statistically significant only after a 1-year lag, suggesting a delayed impact. Deeper analyses on country-cohorts, based on longitudinal clustering, reveal interesting context-dependent variations in the above relationships, thereby underscoring the need for tailored, dimension-specific e-government policies to effectively promote gender equality.
Recommended Citation
Kumar, M.,
&
Saha, D.
(In press).
Is e-Government Development Associated with Gender Inequality Reduction at the National Level? A Global Longitudinal Study.
Information Technology for Development.
Available at:
https://aisel.aisnet.org/itd/vol32/iss2/22