IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/agribz/v39y2023is1p1478-1494.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of Internet usage on dietary quality: Evidence from rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Yi Cui
  • Thomas Glauben
  • Wei Si
  • Qiran Zhao

Abstract

The popularity of Internet usage in rural China is on the rise while improving the nutritional status of Chinese rural residents remains a major issue due to prevalent unbalanced diets and deficiencies in some nutrients. However, there is a scarcity of empirical evidence linking these two aspects. The relationship between Internet usage and dietary quality remains inconclusive in both developed and developing countries. Using data from a survey of 2053 households in rural China, this paper examines the relationship between Internet usage and dietary quality among Chinese rural residents by employing an endogenous switching regression model to address the issue of selection bias. The empirical results reveal that respondents' gender, age, years of education, and household income significantly influenced their decisions to use the Internet, and Internet usage significantly improve dietary quality of their household. The findings of the heterogeneous analysis show that the impact of Internet usage on dietary quality varies based on respondents' dietary knowledge, per capita annual income, and household food expenditure. Through mechanism analysis, we find that Internet usage can improve the dietary quality by increasing the possibility of online food purchasing and fostering a more positive dietary attitude. [EconLit Citations: I12, O15, O33].

Suggested Citation

  • Yi Cui & Thomas Glauben & Wei Si & Qiran Zhao, 2023. "The effect of Internet usage on dietary quality: Evidence from rural China," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(S1), pages 1478-1494, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:39:y:2023:i:s1:p:1478-1494
    DOI: 10.1002/agr.21869
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21869
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/agr.21869?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Doris Läpple & Thia Hennessy & Carol Newman, 2013. "Quantifying the Economic Return to Participatory Extension Programmes in Ireland: an Endogenous Switching Regression Analysis," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 467-482, June.
    2. James Heckman & Justin L. Tobias & Edward Vytlacil, 2001. "Four Parameters of Interest in the Evaluation of Social Programs," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(2), pages 210-223, October.
    3. Liang Lu & Thomas Reardon, 2018. "An Economic Model of the Evolution of Food Retail and Supply Chains from Traditional Shops to Supermarkets to E-Commerce," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(5), pages 1320-1335.
    4. Michael Lokshin & Zurab Sajaia, 2004. "Maximum likelihood estimation of endogenous switching regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(3), pages 282-289, September.
    5. Elijah N. Muange & Marther W. Ngigi, 2021. "Dietary quality and overnutrition among adults in Kenya: what role does ICT play?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 1013-1028, August.
    6. Shiferaw, Bekele & Kassie, Menale & Jaleta, Moti & Yirga, Chilot, 2014. "Adoption of improved wheat varieties and impacts on household food security in Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 272-284.
    7. Eric Williams, 2011. "Environmental effects of information and communications technologies," Nature, Nature, vol. 479(7373), pages 354-358, November.
    8. Bennett, Merrill K., 1941. "Wheat in National Diets," Wheat Studies, Stanford University, Food Research Institute, vol. 18(02), pages 1-44, October.
    9. James Heckman & Justin L. Tobias & Edward Vytlacil, 2001. "Four Parameters of Interest in the Evaluation of Social Programs," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(2), pages 210-223, October.
    10. Ira M. Wasserman & Marie Richmond‐Abbott, 2005. "Gender and the Internet: Causes of Variation in Access, Level, and Scope of Use," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(1), pages 252-270, March.
    11. Ankrah Twumasi, Martinson & Jiang, Yuansheng & Asante, Dennis & Addai, Bismark & Akuamoah-Boateng, Samuel & Fosu, Prince, 2021. "Internet use and farm households food and nutrition security nexus: The case of rural Ghana," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Huang, Yingying & Tian, Xu, 2019. "Food accessibility, diversity of agricultural production and dietary pattern in rural China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 92-102.
    13. Zhu, Zhongkun & Ma, Wanglin & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Leng, Chenxin, 2020. "The effect of internet usage on perceptions of social fairness: Evidence from rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    14. Behrman, Jere R. & Deolalikar, Anil B., 1988. "Health and nutrition," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 14, pages 631-711, Elsevier.
    15. Hugo Valin & Ronald D. Sands & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe & Gerald C. Nelson & Helal Ahammad & Elodie Blanc & Benjamin Bodirsky & Shinichiro Fujimori & Tomoko Hasegawa & Petr Havlik & Edwina Heyhoe, 2014. "The future of food demand: understanding differences in global economic models," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(1), pages 51-67, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bairagi, Subir & Bhandari, Humnath & Kumar Das, Subrata & Mohanty, Samarendu, 2021. "Flood-tolerant rice improves climate resilience, profitability, and household consumption in Bangladesh," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    2. Woo, Donghyup & Suresh, Nallan C., 2022. "Voluntary agreements for sustainability, resource efficiency & firm performance under the supply chain cooperation policy in South Korea," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    3. Tesfaye, Wondimagegn & Tirivayi, Nyasha, 2018. "The impacts of postharvest storage innovations on food security and welfare in Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 52-67.
    4. Bairagi, Subir & Mishra, Ashok K. & Durand-Morat, Alvaro, 2020. "Climate risk management strategies and food security: Evidence from Cambodian rice farmers," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. Federico Antonioli & Simone Severini & Mauro Vigani, 2023. "Visa for competitiveness: foreign workforce and Italian dairy farms’ performance," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(1), pages 115-150.
    6. Tezera W. Meskel & Mengistu Ketema & Jema Haji & Lemma Zemedu, 2021. "Welfare Impact of Moringa Market Participation in Southern Ethiopia," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(3), pages 1-98, December.
    7. Lassalas, Marie & Duvaleix, Sabine & Latruffe, Laure, 2021. "Stringency of environmental standards, yield, product quality and revenue: Evidence from French wheat production," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315184, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Benali, Marwan & Brümmer, Bernhard & Afari-Sefa, Victor, 2017. "Small producer participation in export vegetable supply chains and poverty: evidence from different export schemes in Tanzania," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 262583, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    9. Song, Chunxiao & Liu, Ruifeng & Oxley, Oxley & Ma, Hengyun, 2018. "The adoption and impact of engineering-type measures to address climate change: evidence from the major grain-producing areas in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 62(4), October.
    10. Marie Lassalas & Sabine Duvaleix & Laure Latruffe, 2024. "The technical and economic effects of biodiversity standards on wheat production," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 51(2), pages 275-308.
    11. Armel Nonvide, Gbêtondji Melaine, 2023. "Impact of information and communication technologies on agricultural households’ welfare in Benin," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(6).
    12. Nkegbe, Paul Kwame & Abdul Mumin, Yazeed, 2022. "Impact of community development initiatives and access to community markets on household food security and nutrition in Ghana," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    13. Yang, Jinqiu & Hong, Yongmiao & Ma, Shuangge, 2016. "Impact of the new health care reform on hospital expenditure in China: A case study from a pilot city," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-14.
    14. Akpalu, Wisdom & Zhang, Xu, 2014. "Fast-food consumption and child body mass index in China: Application of an endogenous switching regression model," WIDER Working Paper Series 139, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Burcu Fazlıoğlu & Başak Dalgıç & Ahmet Burçin Yereli, 2019. "The effect of innovation on productivity: evidence from Turkish manufacturing firms," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 439-460, April.
    16. Salvatore Falco & Marcella Veronesi, 2018. "Managing Environmental Risk in Presence of Climate Change: The Role of Adaptation in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia," Natural Resource Management and Policy, in: Leslie Lipper & Nancy McCarthy & David Zilberman & Solomon Asfaw & Giacomo Branca (ed.), Climate Smart Agriculture, pages 497-526, Springer.
    17. Emiliano Magrini & Mauro Vigani, 2016. "Technology adoption and the multiple dimensions of food security: the case of maize in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 707-726, August.
    18. Salvatore Di Falco & Marcella Veronesi & Mahmud Yesuf, 2011. "Does Adaptation to Climate Change Provide Food Security? A Micro-Perspective from Ethiopia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(3), pages 825-842.
    19. Gbêtondji Melaine Armel Nonvide, 2024. "Impact of Irrigation on Food and Nutrition Security Among Rice Farmers in Benin," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(6), pages 1343-1371, December.
    20. Vigani, Mauro & Kathage, Jonas, 2016. "The impact of risk management practices on wheat productivity in France and Hungary," 90th Annual Conference, April 4-6, 2016, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 236352, Agricultural Economics Society.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:39:y:2023:i:s1:p:1478-1494. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6297 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.