Mobile internet and income improvement: Evidence from Vietnam

New developments of existing technologies over time have led to emergent patterns of technology adoption and accordingly changing impacts on economy and society. Focusing on the arrival of mobile Internet in the early 2010s in developing countries, we identified significant positive effects of mobile Internet on provinces’ average household income in Vietnam. The effect sizes are larger for lower-income quintiles groups and for rural areas, suggesting the more inclusive changing impact of the innovation over the last decade. Preliminary evidence of impact mechanisms via skilled employment rates and (formal) wages are also presented. The evidence from Vietnam, a lower middle-income country, can bring further understanding in the extent of development impacts of second-generation mobile for development (M4D 2.0) in particular and ICT for development (ICT4D) in general.

Keywords: household income, jobs, wages, mobile Internet, smartphone, technological change, technology adoption, developing countries, M4D, ICT4D.

JEL Classification: D31, E20, E24, J24, O30, O53, R50