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

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.