The Impact of Internet Use on Rural Women’s Off-Farm Work Participation: Empirical Evidence from China

Promoting rural women’s participation in off-farm work is an important way to increase their income and alleviate a shortage of off-farm labor supply. The widespread use of the Internet provides new opportunities to promote their participation in off-farm work. This paper draws on data from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to analyze the impact of Internet use on rural women’s off-farm work participation by using a logit model and propensity score matching method. The results show that, relative to groups who do not use the Internet, rural women who use the Internet demonstrate an eight-percentage point increase in their participation in off-farm work and a greater enhancement effect on the employed model than the self-employed model. Further analysis reveals that Internet use primarily affects rural women’s participation in off-farm work in four aspects: increasing the efficiency of access to information; increasing human capital; increasing the accumulation of social capital; and changing the perception of gender roles. The heterogeneity analysis finds that when rural women are younger and more educated, Internet use will have a more pronounced effect on their off-farm work participation. As the number of minors in the household increases, Internet use has a more positive effect on rural women’s off-farm work participation. Additionally, rural women in China’s eastern and central regions are more likely to be positively impacted by Internet use than counterparts from the west. The findings provide new empirical evidence that contributes to the government’s use of the Internet to promote rural female off-farm work participation.