RURAL NONFARM EMPLOYMENT UNDER TRADE REFORM EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM, 1993-2002

Vietnam’s rural economy has substantially diversified over the past two decades. The rural nonfarm sector has grown rapidly and became an important source of employment and income for rural households. This growing nonfarm employment was associated with radical changes in the trade policy reform that has put the country to the top two or three performers in the developing world. This paper examines the potential effect of the trade policy reform on nonfarm employment in rural Vietnam during the period 1993-2002. It proposes two trade openness indices that allow changes in the trade policy at the macro level to be transmitted to rural households. The results reveal that the trade policy reform does have a material impact on rural nonfarm employment. While a more liberalized agricultural sector encourages nonfarm diversification, a lower protection level in the nonfarm sector discourages individual participation in nonfarm income-generating activities.Trade liberalization, trade policy reform, rural nonfarm employment, Vietnam

Ethnic Wage Inequality in Vietnam: Empirical Evidence from 2002

This paper complements earlier studies on ethnic minority underdevelopment in Vietnam by empirically examining the ethnic wage gap in the Vietnamese labour market, using data from a large-scale household survey conducted in 2002. The paper uses the ‘index number’ decomposition method suggested by Oaxaca (1973) to decompose the ethnic wage gap into treatment and endowment effects at both the mean and at selected quantiles of the conditional wage distribution. The results confirm the existence of an ethnic wage gap in the labour market, through this gap is found to be substantially narrower than the ethnic gap observed using household living standard measures for Vietnam. Decomposition results reveal that the ethnic wage gap is largely attributable to differentials in the returns to endowments, a finding invariant to whether the mean or selected quantiles of the conditional wage distribution is examined.Wage inequality, ethnic minority, quantile regression, Vietnam

The Gender Pay Gap In Vietnam, 1993-2002: A Quantile Regression Approach

This paper uses mean and quantile regression analysis to investigate the gender pay gap for the wage employed in Vietnam over the period 1993 to 2002. It finds that the Doi moi reforms have been associated with a sharp reduction in gender wage disparities for the wage employed. The average gender pay gap in this sector halved between 1993 and 2002 with most of the contraction evident by 1998. There has also been a contraction in the gender pay at most selected points of the conditional wage distribution with the observed effect most pronounced at the top end of the distribution. However, the decomposition analysis suggests that the treatment effect is relatively stable across the conditional wage distribution and little evidence of a ?glassceiling? is detected for Vietnamese women in the wage employment sector in any of the years examined.Gender pay gap, Quantile regression, Vietnam

Land Transactions in the North of Vietnam: A Modelling Approach

The use of mathematical models to describe the interactions of variables is useful in modern management. In this paper, a 'mixed' model combining the knapsack problem, a household model and a form of spatial equilibrium model into a modelling framework is developed. The impacts of changes in off-farm wage rates, transaction costs in the rental market, the output prices of paddy crops, and land transactions were examined in the model. The simulation has led to the conclusion that the real benefits to farm households from land consolidation may not be apparent until the real opportunity cost of farm labour begins to rise. In addition, a reform policy in the administrative sector which encourages, not only the process of land accumulation and the rental market to be more active, but also farmers to involve themselves more actively in farming will improve their well-being. Moreover, a policy which allows farmers to freely cultivate other annual crops (cash crops) instead of rice and corn may be important and it should be considered in the future.Land transactions, modelling, knapsack problem, Vietnam, Land Economics/Use, C6, Q15, Q24,

The economics of land fragmentation in the north of Vietnam

Land fragmentation, where a single farm has a number of parcels of land, is a common feature of agriculture in many countries, especially in developing countries. In Vietnam, land fragmentation is common, especially in the north. For the whole country, there are about 75 million parcels of land, an average of seven to eight plots per farm household. Such fragmentation can be seen to have negative and positive benefits for farm households and the community generally. Comparative statics analysis and analysis of survey data have led to the conclusion that small-sized farms are likely to be more fragmented, and that fragmentation had a negative impact on crop productivity and increased family labour use and other money expenses. Policies which allow the appropriate opportunity cost of labour to be reflected at the farm level may provide appropriate incentives to trigger farm size change and land consolidation. Policies which tip the benefits in favour of fewer and larger plots, such as strong and effective research and development, an active extension system and strong administrative management, may also lead to land consolidation.development economics, land fragmentation, land use and tenure, production economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The economics of land fragmentation in the north of Vietnam

Land fragmentation, in which a single farm household operates more than one separate piece of land, is significant issue in Vietnamese agriculture, especially in the North. For the whole country, there are about 75 million plots of land, an average of 7-8 plots per farm household. Such fragmentation can be seen to have negative and positive benefits for farm households and the community generally. The negative impacts can be reduced mechanisation, higher cost, loss of land due to boundaries, increased negative externalities, and more limited application of new technologies. On the other hand, land fragmentation may have some benefits to farmers such as spreading output risk, seasonal labour use, and crop diversification. Comparative static analysis and analysis of survey data have led to the conclusion that small sized farms are likely to be more fragmented and the number of plots held by a household is not a significant determinant of yield and output risk spreading but is a significant factor in crop diversification. Policies which allow the appropriate opportunity cost of labour to be reflected at the farm level may provide appropriate incentives to trigger farm size change and land consolidation. Policies which tip the benefits in favour of fewer and larger plots such as strong and effective research and development, an active extension system and strong administrative management may also lead to land consolidation and thus allow some of the benefits which will accrue to the economy more generally to be obtained by farmers.Land Economics/Use,

The debates and the long-awaited reform

Trung Tran, Phuong-Thao T. Trinh, Thu-Trang Vuong, Hiep-Hung Pham (2019). Chapter 1. The debates and the long-awaited reform. In Quan-Hoang Vuong, Trung Tran (Eds.), The Vietnamese Social Sciences at a Fork in the Road (pp. 17–32). Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter / Sciendo. DOI:10.2478/9783110686081-006 Online ISBN: 9783110686081 © 2019 De Gruyter / Sciend

RURAL NONFARM EMPLOYMENT UNDER TRADE REFORM EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM, 1993-2002

Vietnam’s rural economy has substantially diversified over the past two decades. The rural nonfarm sector has grown rapidly and became an important source of employment and income for rural households. This growing nonfarm employment was associated with radical changes in the trade policy reform that has put the country to the top two or three performers in the developing world. This paper examines the potential effect of the trade policy reform on nonfarm employment in rural Vietnam during the period 1993-2002. It proposes two trade openness indices that allow changes in the trade policy at the macro level to be transmitted to rural households. The results reveal that the trade policy reform does have a material impact on rural nonfarm employment. While a more liberalized agricultural sector encourages nonfarm diversification, a lower protection level in the nonfarm sector discourages individual participation in nonfarm income-generating activities