The power of Internet: from the perspective of women's bargaining power

China's rapid socioeconomic development has significantly improved women's participation in household decision-making. A substantial percentage of women actively participate in decisions concerning household loans, business matters, and house purchases. Women's influence over household finances has also notably increased. This coincides with the rapid expansion of internet users in China. While prior research emphasizes factors like education, property rights, and income levels in influencing women's bargaining power, this study pioneers the investigation of the internet's causal effect on this aspect of women's empowerment. The research question is: Does internet usage causally affect women's bargaining power within the household, and if so, through which mechanisms? This paper uses the Third National Survey on Chinese Women's Social Status (NWSSS) and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to explore this relationship within the resource-agency-achievement framework. Internet use is considered a valuable resource, influencing women's agency (bargaining power) and ultimately achieving improved household decision-making.

Existing research on intrahousehold bargaining power has shifted from the unitary model (assuming unified family preferences) to the collective model (acknowledging diverse preferences and resource endowments). The resource endowments theory emphasizes the role of income, employment, and occupation in shaping bargaining power. However, empirical findings sometimes show inconsistencies, with women's resource ownership not always translating to improved bargaining outcomes. The cultural norm theory highlights the influence of gender norms, religious beliefs, and social norms on household negotiation dynamics. This study integrates the internet as a technological factor influencing women's empowerment, acknowledging its potential to enhance employment prospects, income levels, and reshape gender beliefs, ultimately impacting bargaining power.

The study uses data from the 2010 NSWSS and the 2014 CFPS. The NSWSS data includes measures of women's bargaining power (Actual_power: subjective assessment; Bargain_power: aggregated scores from six decision-making dimensions) and Internet use (frequency of use). The CFPS data, used for robustness checks, measures bargaining power across five household decision-making areas and internet use (binary variable indicating use/non-use). Mediating variables include employment status, income level, and gender beliefs. Control variables encompass individual, family, and community-level factors. Two econometric models (ordered logit and OLS) are used initially. To address endogeneity concerns, an instrumental variable approach is employed, using an interaction term between 1984 telephone/post office density and 2010 internet penetration in each community. Causal mediation analysis within a counterfactual framework is used to estimate the average causal mediation effects (ACME) and average total effects (ATE) of internet use on women's bargaining power, quantifying the contribution of each mediating variable. Heterogeneity analysis is conducted to examine differences in urban and rural areas.

The study's key findings consistently demonstrate a positive association between internet use and women's bargaining power across both datasets. After controlling for confounding factors and addressing endogeneity using instrumental variables, the results show that increased internet usage leads to a statistically significant increase in women's bargaining power. The impact is particularly strong in rural areas, where increased internet access leads to significant improvement in women's participation in household decisions, This contrasts with urban areas, where awareness of gender equality might already be higher, reducing the impact of internet use on decision-making. Causal mediation analysis reveals that changes in employment status, income levels, and gender beliefs mediate the relationship between internet use and women's bargaining power. Gender beliefs account for approximately 11.435% of the effect, income for 9.88%, and employment status for 3.085%. Robustness checks using the CFPS dataset confirm these findings.

The findings address the research question by demonstrating a causal link between internet usage and enhanced women's bargaining power. The significant positive effect, particularly pronounced in rural areas, highlights the potential of digital technology to empower women and promote gender equality. The mediation analysis clarifies the mechanisms through which the internet exerts its influence, emphasizing the importance of economic empowerment and shifting gender norms. These results add to the existing literature by demonstrating the significant role of technology, specifically the internet, as a driver of women's empowerment. The findings are particularly important for policymakers in developing countries, where internet penetration is rapidly growing and its potential impact on gender dynamics warrants attention.

This study makes significant contributions by incorporating the internet as a factor in women's empowerment, demonstrating its causal effect on bargaining power, particularly for rural women, and quantifying the contribution of mediating factors. Future research should employ more recent data to capture current trends, examine the influence of specific internet applications (e.g., social media, e-commerce), and explore the generalizability of findings across diverse cultural contexts.

The study's main limitations include the use of data from 2010 and 2014, potentially underrepresenting current trends. The generalizability of the findings to other cultural contexts might also be limited. Further research using more recent data and exploring diverse cultural contexts is needed to strengthen the study's generalizability and address potential time-related biases. The specific policy environment in China could also influence the extent to which internet access translates to women's empowerment.