Environmental resource extraction and poverty: Comparative evidence from rural Thailand and Vietnam

Abstract

This analysis aims to: (i) identify the factors associated with environmental resource extraction using a Heckman model, (ii) examine the correlation between environmental resource extraction and poverty using an endogenous switching regression, and (iii) analyse the difference in the correlation between poverty and environmental resource extraction among household groups using unconditional quantile regression. Panel data from three survey waves of more than 10,000 rural households in 2010, 2013, and 2016 are used for the analysis. The results reveal that in both countries, a higher education level of household adults and having non-farm self-employment are associated with less environmental resource extraction, while having a larger household size and being an ethnic minority are associated with more environmental resource extraction. Switching from extraction to non-extraction is associated with a decrease in poverty. However, the effect is larger in Vietnam than in Thailand. Therefore, promoting non-farm employment and rural education is recommended in both countries. For Vietnam, developing rural road systems is also beneficial, but special attention should be paid to the disadvantageous position of ethnic minorities.