UNEQUAL REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL VIETNAM: SPATIAL DISPARITIES AND POLICY CONSIDERATIONS

In Vietnam, the poor have long been assumed to be the ethnic minorities mostly living in the highlands. After more than two decades of introducing Doi moi policy into the economy, along with having enjoyed various improvements in social and economic aspects, the disparities between the majority and ethnic majorities, the lowlands and the highlands, and between regions, still have been widened. This paper aims at examining income inequality, its affecting factors in rural areas, and exploring the current situation of regional economic disparities using both development policy review and econometrics approaches. Data from Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) 2008 was used in the study. The expenditure per capita was employed as the dependent variable to regress with household characteristics and resources. In addition, the regional dummy variables were employed to show the different effects from different geographic locations. The results showed that the household characteristics and resources such as education level, perennial land area, water surface area, and the accessibility to infrastructure facilities such as road, electricity and local market had positive effect on expenditure. Furthermore, the North Central Coast region showed negative impact on household expenditure. Interestingly, this finding does not absolutely follow the hypothesis and indicates that the economic development strategy and polices should be adjusted to decrease the gap among regions based on their economic advantages for balancing the economic situation of the whole country in the futureInequality, Disparity, Regional Development, Rural Development, Vietnam

Alternative Payment Vehicles in Contingent Valuation: The Case of Genetically Modified Foods

In this paper, a secondary consumer food survey is used to explore the role of the payment vehicle in contingent valuation. More specifically, the paper investigates the household willingness-to-pay in the UK for a GM and non-GM labelling program under two alternative payment vehicles: 1) a standard product tax, under which consumers must trade-off some of their personal income for the labelling program; and 2) a taxation reallocation scheme, whereby consumers must trade-off some amount of their household’s taxation money that is currently spent on other government-funded goods. Contrary to previous valuation research, the willingness-to-pay under each vehicle is not found to be statistically significantly different, suggesting that in the case study investigated here, the marginal values of private income and other public goods in the UK are approximately equal.Payment Vehicles; Contingent Valuation:

WOULD PEOPLE RATHER PAY TAXES OR TRADE TAXES TO PAY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS? A GROUND WATER QUALITY CASE

The potential sensitivity of environmental resource valuation to payment vehicles is of interest to researchers and decision-makers involved in estimating and applying these numbers. A conceptual model is developed which provides insight into how the different payment vehicles of a special tax and a tax reallocation affects the willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental goods. Hypothesis testing using contingent valuation data suggests WTP with a tax reallocation is higher than WTP with a special tax for ground water quality protection in Georgia and Maine.Environmental Economics and Policy, Public Economics,

The contracts between leading agribusiness enterprises and rural households: its effects on firm-level export of agricultural products

In this paper, transaction cost is introduced into the general firm-level export behavior model. By so doing, we build a theoretical model explaining how connection modes between leading agribusiness enterprises and rural households affect the firm-level agricultural products export. Analyzing the dataset of 561 national leading agribusinesses of the year 2003, we use Tobit model to estimate the firm-level export effect of the connection modes. The empirical result demonstrates that connections in the mode of stock-cooperation or cooperation contracts have a significant positive effect on the enterprises export and export ratio. In addition, the connection with more characteristics of factor contract has stronger effect on export than that with commodity contract characteristics.Contracts; Agribusiness; Rural Households; Firm-level; Export

Alternative Payment Vehicles in Contingent Valuation: The Case of Genetically Modified Foods

In this paper, a secondary consumer food survey is used to explore the role of the payment vehicle in contingent valuation. More specifically, the paper investigates the household willingness-to-pay in the UK for a GM and non-GM labelling program under two alternative payment vehicles: 1) a standard product tax, under which consumers must trade-off some of their personal income for the labelling program; and 2) a taxation reallocation scheme, whereby consumers must trade-off some amount of their household’s taxation money that is currently spent on other government-funded goods. Contrary to previous valuation research, the willingness-to-pay under each vehicle is not found to be statistically significantly different, suggesting that in the case study investigated here, the marginal values of private income and other public goods in the UK are approximately equal

UK Consumers’ Preferences for Ethical Attributes of Floating Rice: Implications for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture in Vietnam

Vietnam plays an important role in bearing global food security. However, Vietnamese rice farmers face several challenges, including pressures to develop sustainable livelihoods while reducing the environmental impacts of their production activities. Various Vietnamese agricultural restructuring policies were promulgated to promote the adoption of environmentally friendly practices to generate high value added for rice farmers, but the farmers are reluctant to adopt them because of perceived lack of demand. Decreasing consumption of rice in Asia and increasing demands in Europe shaped Vietnamese rice exporting policies. New trade agreements, such as the UK–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, offer new target markets for Vietnamese rice farmers. This research provides empirical evidence related to the preferences of UK consumers for ethical attributes for floating rice imported from Vietnam. Floating rice represents a traditional method of rice cultivation that relies on the natural flooding cycle. Its cultivation uses very few agrochemical inputs and provides several other environmental, economic, and social benefits. In an online survey, the study used a choice experiment that asked 306 UK consumers to report their preferences for one kilo of floating rice with three non-market attributes: reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, allocation of profits to the farmers, and restitution of biodiversity. Overall, study participants favored the attributes of floating rice, but reported utility for only the “fair trade” attribute and for a marginal willingness to pay premiums for profit allocations to farmers. Consumers did not find value in either CO2 emission reduction or biodiversity improvement. Results from the study provide recommendations to develop agricultural programs, distribution strategies, and informational methods to encourage floating rice consumption in the UK