Does Internet Access Effect on Female Labor Force Participation? Study in Bali Province

Abstract

The Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been growing exponentially at unprecedented speed and scale during past decades. In particular, the internet was deemed to help increase female labor force participation (FLFP) through its job-related transformation. However, such a claim needs to be further investigated, particularly in a society where gender stereotypes brought by social norms and values prevail. On the other hand, Bali province has long been characterized by highly-patriarchal culture. Men and women's role are distinguished, with men taking the top part while women are carrying the supporting one. Hence, looking into the contribution of internet access to FLFP in Bali Province will be a cutting-edge attempt to study the ICT effect on FLFP. The quasi-experiment approach will also estimate causal effects and draw causal inferences of a specific intervention. As part of the primary method in quasi-experimental designs, propensity score matching (PSM) is assigned. This method can be utilized analogously to the randomized experiment that helps design an observational study regardless of the outcome's availability. Using data from the Indonesian national socio-economic survey (SUSENAS) 2018, we aim to account for the effect of internet access on the FLFP in Bali province. Based on our findings, it can be inferred that internet access positively impacts the FLFP in Bali province. This result is mainly affiliated with their educational background and well-being, e.g., dependency ratio, other household income, and low Household. The ICT brought by the internet appears to have a role in increasing female participation to join the workforce despite being designated to a highly-patriarchal society. However, this condition has mainly relied on the level of education and household well-being.