An equitable distribution of economic benefits from the recent growth of e-commerce in Pakistan requires inclusive adoption of formal digital marketplaces. The available literature and focused discussions reveal that most women-led businesses rely on informal e-commerce managed through social media applications and have incomplete and often incorrect information on the benefits and choices related to the formal platforms. To inform and motivate women-led micro, small and medium enterprises, this study deploys an information treatment through a randomised control trial of 300 women entrepreneurs in large urban centres of Pakistan. Results show that women entrepreneurs were responsive to the information, as the treated businesses were 10 percentage points more likely to opt for formal e-commerce than the control group. The study is policy relevant as the methodology allows simple and inexpensive replication to scale up the treatment for better business growth for women entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

中文翻译：

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巴基斯坦女性领导的企业加入正规电子商务平台的意愿

公平分配巴基斯坦最近电子商务增长带来的经济利益需要包容性地采用正式的数字市场。现有文献和重点讨论表明，大多数女性领导的企业依赖于通过社交媒体应用程序管理的非正式电子商务，并且关于与正式平台相关的好处和选择的信息不完整且通常不正确。为了告知和激励女性领导的微型、小型和中型企业，本研究通过对巴基斯坦大城市中心的 300 名女企业家进行随机对照试验来部署信息处理。结果表明，女企业家对信息反应灵敏，因为接受治疗的企业选择正规电子商务的可能性比对照组高 10 个百分点。