Unequal Access, Uneven Gains: Demographic and Structural Barriers to Rural E-Commerce Adoption in India

Avik Ghosh ()
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Avik Ghosh: Reserve Bank of India

Chapter Chapter 3 in E-Commerce for Inclusive Rural and Agricultural Development, 2027, pp 61-99 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Despite increasing internet penetration and national-level digital policies, rural e-commerce participation in India remains significantly lower than in urban areas. The existing literature inadequately addresses the demographic and structural drivers of this gap, often relying on macro-level indicators that fail to capture intra-group disparities in digital use. This paper addresses this critical gap through a micro-level, distribution-sensitive analysis of household digital expenditure as a proxy for e-commerce engagement. Using data from the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS), Wave January–May 2025, covering over 100,000 households, the study deploys a multi-method empirical framework—state-fixed effects OLS regression, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, and quantile regression—to identify how demographic characteristics such as education, occupation, gender, age group, and household size shape digital behavior. Findings reveal that rural households face not only endowment disadvantages but also systematically lower returns to digital characteristics, especially in education and occupation. Distributional analysis shows that digitally excluded groups are concentrated in the lower expenditure quantiles, reinforcing structural exclusion. The paper makes both theoretical and empirical contributions to the discourse on rural digital inequality. Policy recommendations include targeted digital literacy interventions, gender-responsive platform design, occupation-specific enablement programs, and investment in subnational infrastructure to ensure that rural e-commerce development is inclusive, equitable, and scalable.

Keywords: Rural E-Commerce; Digital divide; Structural barriers; Demographic inequality; Oaxaca decomposition; C14; C21; D12; O18; O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2027
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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-92-5237-4_3

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