Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.17559/TV-20221108034505

A PSM Model to Estimate the Impacts of Internet Use on Rural Residents' Health

Rong Nie ; School of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
Jianfeng Su ; School of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
Shurui Guo ; School of Marxism, Shenyang Institute of Science and Technology, Shenyang 110167, China

Abstract

As an important component of human capital, the contribution of health to accelerating economic development and technological progress is obvious.The Internet has had a profound impact on the lifestyle of rural residents. Using the nationally representative data from the 2017 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this study estimates the impacts of internet use on residents' health in rural China. We employ the propensity score matching (PSM) model to address the selection bias. Our findings reveal that Internet use can reduce the physical and mental health of rural residents significantly. Disaggregated analysis indicates that Internet use has a greater positive effect on physical health of male, elderly, high-educated, and eastern regional rural residents. Internet use only had significant positive effects on mental health of female, middle-aged, high-educated and western regional rural residents. In addition, we explore the mechanisms by which Internet use affects rural residents' health from social network.

Keywords

internet use; ordered probit model; PSM model; residents' health

Hrčak ID:

294385

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/294385

Publication date:

26.2.2023.

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