Internet use, natural resource extraction and poverty reduction in rural Thailand

This study uses the data of 1912 and 1815 rural households surveyed in 2016 and 2017, respectively in three provinces of Thailand to examine the factors affecting the decision of rural households to use the internet and the impacts of internet use on household income and poverty. Results from a probit model show that the decision of rural households to use the internet is positively associated with the education level of the household head, household size, labour share, farmland, and household productive assets, and the number of enterprises with at least nine employees in the village. But it is negatively associated with age of household head and share of male members in household. Results from a heteroscedasticity-based instrumental variable regression show that internet use for productive purposes increases household income, promotes development of non-farm sectors, and reduces the extraction of and reliance on natural resources. However, results from an unconditional quantile regression show that better-off households benefit relatively more from internet use than worse-off households. These findings indicate a positive income effect of internet use for productive purposes but also raise a concern of increasing income inequality among rural populations from internet development.