Towards the quest to reduce income inequality in Indonesia: Is there a synergy between ICT and the informal sector?

The study assesses how ICT modulates the effect of informal sector on income inequality and investigates critical mass or threshold of ICT at which the diffusion of information with mobile cellular reduce income inequality. The ICT indicators are the regional ICT development index (RIDI), computer penetration and mobile cellular penetration. The empirical strategy used is Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). Covering panel data from 460 districts/cities in Indonesia for 2015-2019, the study shows that ICT measures of RIDI and computer penetration directly exacerbate income inequality, otherwise mobile cellular penetration directly reduces it. Enhancing ICT beyond certain thresholds is necessary for ICT to modulate informal sector to reduce income inequality. The corresponding ICT thresholds for the reduction of income inequality is 32.78 mobile cellular penetration per 100 people. The established thresholds make economic sense and can be feasibly implemented by policy makers to induce favourable effects on income inequality.