Mon., Oct. 27, 2025: Staff Seminar “Empowering the Elderly: The Role of Digital Access in Promoting Rights Awareness in Vietnam” (online)

We regularly hold Staff Seminars for research presentations and information exchanges among AGI Researchers.

*This seminar will be online and free of charge.

*Please refer to the following for details.

Date and Time

Monday, October 27, 2025 from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
*A question-and-answer session is scheduled at the end of the presentation.

Presenter

Dr. NGUYEN-Phung Thu Hang, Assistant Professor, AGI

Title

Empowering the Elderly: The Role of Digital Access in Promoting Rights Awareness in Vietnam

Abstract

The rapid expansion of digital technologies has transformed how individuals access information and interact with institutions, yet older adults often remain excluded from these opportunities. This study examines the role of digital access in fostering rights awareness among older adults in Vietnam, a country undergoing both demographic aging and rapid digital transformation. Using data from the 2011 Vietnam National Aging Survey, we construct a composite index of digital access incorporating television, radio, newspapers, internet, community loudspeakers, and computer ownership. Rights awareness is measured across four domains: health, social protection, legal and policy, and civic participation. To address potential endogeneity, we employ Oster’s (2019) coefficient stability bounds, complemented by propensity score matching, inverse probability weighting, entropy balancing, coarsened exact matching, and double/debiased machine learning. Across all specifications, digital access is consistently associated with greater rights awareness, even under conservative assumptions regarding omitted variable bias. Mediation analysis further reveals that digital access promotes awareness both directly and indirectly, through enhanced civic participation and stronger intergenerational support. Taken together, these findings highlight digital access as a key determinant of informational empowerment, with important implications for digital equity, inclusive governance, and aging policy in Vietnam and other rapidly aging societies.