TY - JOUR

T1 - Female rural–urban migrants and online marketplaces in emerging economies

T2 - Evidence from Thailand and Vietnam

AU - Nguyen, Trung Thanh

AU - Do, Manh Hung

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank the respondents from the migrant tracking survey and rural household survey in Thailand and Vietnam for their kind support and cooperation. We acknowledge the support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the TVSEP project (DFG‐FOR 756/2) and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). We appreciate the efforts of our colleagues at the Leibniz University Hannover for data collection and cleaning. The comments from the participants at the virtual ABDI Conference ‘The Social and Economic Impact of Online Commerce on Women’ on 26–28 October 2021 are appreciated. M.H. Do would like to thank the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for financial assistance. We are also grateful to the constructive comments from four anonymous reviewers. This research has been supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG ‐ FOR 756/2) for data collection.

PY - 2022/12/13

Y1 - 2022/12/13

N2 - This research aimed to examine the factors affecting the participation of female rural–urban migrants in online marketplaces, and the welfare gains and their distribution. Our analysis was based on a unique dataset of rural households, villages, and rural–urban migrants in Thailand and Vietnam. Online market participation is classified into three activities: financial transactions, trading, and business. We accounted for the endogeneity issue of online market participation in the assessment of welfare impact by using an instrumental variable approach. Our results show that participation has a positive effect on the consumption of female migrants only when they participate in the complete bundle of online market activities. In addition, we find that the poor benefit insignificantly from online marketplaces. This raises a concern about increasing welfare inequality and suggests the poor should be supported so they are not left behind.

AB - This research aimed to examine the factors affecting the participation of female rural–urban migrants in online marketplaces, and the welfare gains and their distribution. Our analysis was based on a unique dataset of rural households, villages, and rural–urban migrants in Thailand and Vietnam. Online market participation is classified into three activities: financial transactions, trading, and business. We accounted for the endogeneity issue of online market participation in the assessment of welfare impact by using an instrumental variable approach. Our results show that participation has a positive effect on the consumption of female migrants only when they participate in the complete bundle of online market activities. In addition, we find that the poor benefit insignificantly from online marketplaces. This raises a concern about increasing welfare inequality and suggests the poor should be supported so they are not left behind.

KW - endogenous

KW - heterogeneity

KW - impact

KW - instrumental variable

KW - poverty

KW - welfare

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138707301&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/app5.359

DO - 10.1002/app5.359

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85138707301

VL - 9

SP - 317

EP - 342

JO - Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies

JF - Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies

SN - 2050-2680

IS - 3

ER -