Heterogeneous effects of internet use and adoption of sustainable production practices on rural incomes: Evidence from China

Abstract

Relatively little is known about the association between Internet use and agricultural innovation adoption. To fill this void, this study examines the impact of Internet use on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) and their heterogeneous effects on farm income and household income. Unlike previous studies that analyse the dichotomous decision of agricultural innovation adoption, this study captures the number of SAPs adopted. We apply both endogenous-treatment Poisson regression model and unconditional quantile regression model to analyse unique farm-level data collected from China. The empirical results show that Internet use exerts a positive and statistically significant impact on the number of SAPs adopted, and the joint effects of Internet use and SAP adoption on farm income and household income are heterogeneous. In particular, we show that households with lower farm income tend to benefit more from SAP adoption, while those with higher household income appear to benefit more from Internet use.