TY - JOUR

T1 - Internet use and agricultural productivity in rural Vietnam

AU - Nguyen, Trung Thanh

AU - Grote, Ulrike

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank the farmers in our study sites in Vietnam for their support and cooperation. The authors appreciate the financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the long‐term Thailand‐Vietnam Socioeconomic Panel Project (DFG ‐ FOR 756/2) ( www.tvsep.de ). The constructive comments from from Editor Wanglin Ma and three reviewers, and from the discussant and participants at the virtual Asian Development Bank Institute (ABDI) Conference ‘’ in 8–12 August 2022 are acknowledged. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Rural and Agricultural Development in the Digital Age

PY - 2023/7/11

Y1 - 2023/7/11

N2 - The use of the internet is growing rapidly and has become an engine for economic development. However, few studies have examined the impact of internet use on agricultural production, and the results are not yet conclusive. Employing a dataset of more than 2000 observations in rural Vietnam, our study analyses the impact of internet use on agricultural productivity using the heteroscedasticity-based instrument approach suggested by Lewbel, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 2012, 30, 67–80 and examines the heterogeneity and distribution of the impact using quantile regressions. Our results show that internet use has significant and positive effects on agricultural productivity. However, these effects are heterogeneous across population groups. The positive effects of internet use are stronger for households with a lower level of education, with a young and female head, and from ethnic minorities. The benefits are also found to be skewed towards the group of farmers at the bottom of the productivity distribution. Therefore, we propose facilitating the diffusion of the internet, since it not only boosts agricultural productivity, but also reduces productivity inequality. In addition, we recommend promoting rural education, supporting local markets, investing more in irrigation systems, and facilitating farm mechanisation as these factors are found to contribute to increasing agricultural productivity.

AB - The use of the internet is growing rapidly and has become an engine for economic development. However, few studies have examined the impact of internet use on agricultural production, and the results are not yet conclusive. Employing a dataset of more than 2000 observations in rural Vietnam, our study analyses the impact of internet use on agricultural productivity using the heteroscedasticity-based instrument approach suggested by Lewbel, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 2012, 30, 67–80 and examines the heterogeneity and distribution of the impact using quantile regressions. Our results show that internet use has significant and positive effects on agricultural productivity. However, these effects are heterogeneous across population groups. The positive effects of internet use are stronger for households with a lower level of education, with a young and female head, and from ethnic minorities. The benefits are also found to be skewed towards the group of farmers at the bottom of the productivity distribution. Therefore, we propose facilitating the diffusion of the internet, since it not only boosts agricultural productivity, but also reduces productivity inequality. In addition, we recommend promoting rural education, supporting local markets, investing more in irrigation systems, and facilitating farm mechanisation as these factors are found to contribute to increasing agricultural productivity.

KW - instrumental variable

KW - quantile regression

KW - rural household

KW - Vietnam

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85151454802&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/rode.12990

DO - 10.1111/rode.12990

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85151454802

VL - 27

SP - 1309

EP - 1326

JO - Review of development economics

JF - Review of development economics

SN - 1363-6669

IS - 3

ER -