Does Digital Government Transformation Drive Social Inclusion? Evidence from Female Entrepreneurship in China?

As social inclusion increasingly relies on technological drivers, digital government transformation (DGT) has been recognized as critical for promoting social inclusion. A growing body of literature has explored the relationship between DGT and the social and political participation of disadvantaged and marginalized groups within social inclusion. However, the impact of DGT on the economic participation of these groups remains unclear. Given that female entrepreneurship is an important representation of the economic participation of disadvantaged and marginalized groups, we utilize a quasi-natural experiment involving the adoption of the city brain and employ panel data from 281 Chinese cities from 2014 to 2020, using a time-varying difference-in-differences model to investigate the impact of DGT on female entrepreneurship. This study reveals that DGT promotes regional female entrepreneurship. Business environment optimization, digital inclusive finance development, and technical talent gathering mediate this effect. The positive impact is further strengthened by the government's policy attention to entrepreneurship and digital technology. This study clarifies the impact of DGT on the economic participation of disadvantaged and marginalized groups from the perspective of female entrepreneurship, thereby advancing research on the beneficial effects of DGT on social inclusion.