TY - JOUR

T1 - Farming efficiency and environmental resource dependence: Evidence from panel data for rural Central Vietnam

AU - Bierkamp, Sina

AU - Nguyen, Trung Thanh

AU - Grote, Ulrike

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the farmers in Ha Tinh, Thua Thien Hue and Dak Lak for their support and cooperation. We further acknowledge the financial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG). In addition, we appreciate the valuable feedback from the participants at the International TVSEP Conference in Göttingen 2022, at the German Development Economics Conference in Hohenheim 2022, and from two anonymous reviewers. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

PY - 2024/1/2

Y1 - 2024/1/2

N2 - Farming and natural resource extraction are the main livelihood strategies of the rural poor in developing countries. A better understanding of their relationship is needed to alleviate existing pressures on resources and to reduce poverty. To date, mainly monetary indicators have been used to measure environmental resource dependence. However, these are inadequate for poor people who consume rather than sell their environmental products. Therefore, we propose the Environmental Resource Dependence Index (ERDI) to better capture the multidimensionality of dependence. We analyse the relationship between farming efficiency and environmental resource dependence using a simultaneous equations model (SEM) and panel data for 2013, 2016 and 2017 from three rural provinces in Central Vietnam. Time-variant farming efficiency is estimated using a stochastic frontier model (SFM) with true random effects and Mundlak's adjustment. Our results show that monetary measures underestimate the extent of dependency. Therefore, policymakers should be careful to correctly identify those who are dependent on the environment. In addition, the results suggest that improved farming efficiency reduces the dependence on environmental resources. At the same time, higher dependence does not have a significant effect on farming efficiency.

AB - Farming and natural resource extraction are the main livelihood strategies of the rural poor in developing countries. A better understanding of their relationship is needed to alleviate existing pressures on resources and to reduce poverty. To date, mainly monetary indicators have been used to measure environmental resource dependence. However, these are inadequate for poor people who consume rather than sell their environmental products. Therefore, we propose the Environmental Resource Dependence Index (ERDI) to better capture the multidimensionality of dependence. We analyse the relationship between farming efficiency and environmental resource dependence using a simultaneous equations model (SEM) and panel data for 2013, 2016 and 2017 from three rural provinces in Central Vietnam. Time-variant farming efficiency is estimated using a stochastic frontier model (SFM) with true random effects and Mundlak's adjustment. Our results show that monetary measures underestimate the extent of dependency. Therefore, policymakers should be careful to correctly identify those who are dependent on the environment. In addition, the results suggest that improved farming efficiency reduces the dependence on environmental resources. At the same time, higher dependence does not have a significant effect on farming efficiency.

KW - environmental resource dependence

KW - farming efficiency

KW - simultaneous equations model

KW - stochastic frontier model

KW - Vietnam

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85177857145&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/1467-8489.12543

DO - 10.1111/1467-8489.12543

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85177857145

VL - 68

SP - 146

EP - 167

JO - Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics

JF - Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics

SN - 1364-985X

IS - 1

ER -