Vietnam Household Research Articles

The gender wage gap and the presence of foreign firms in Vietnam: evidence from unconditional quantile regression decomposition

PurposeThe objective of this study is to estimate the gender wage gap in Vietnam and its rural and urban areas, especially with the presence of foreign firms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use cross-sectional data from three rounds of the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS 2008, 2012, and 2016) to investigate this issue. The unconditional quantile regression and Oaxaca–Blinder (OB) decomposition are used in this article.FindingsThe article finds the gender wage gap favouring men, especially in higher quantiles of the wage distribution. The gap in urban Vietnam was higher than in rural areas. The OB decomposition indicates that gender wage gap is mainly driven by gender discrimination. The differences in return to participation in foreign companies only contributed significantly and positively to such a gap in some models. It suggests that the gap in those models is affected by gender discrimination in employment opportunities in foreign companies. Regarding the endowment effect, some models provide the significantly negative impacts of foreign firms on gender wage inequality.Originality/valueThe study suggests that policies to reduce the gender wage gap should pay more attention to foreign firms, especially at higher wage classes.

The interrelationships among the formal, semiformal and informal credit demands of farm households in Vietnam

PurposeThis study simultaneously explores the nexus among formal, semiformal and informal credit markets and farm households' credit demand determinants in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a multistage stratified random sampling process for a survey of 648 smallholder farmers in the Red River Delta (RRD), Vietnam. The trivariate probit model (TVPM) is used to address the interdependence of farm households' credit demands in different credit markets.FindingsThe results reveal complementary relationships among two pairs of credit markets (formal versus informal and semiformal versus informal). There are dissimilarities among the determinants (household characteristics, household head's characteristics, credit history and geographic factors) of farm households' credit demands in different markets, reflecting segmentation of Vietnam credit markets.Practical implicationsThe study's empirical findings are important for policymakers and credit providers to enhance farm households' access to credit for agriculture and to improve the operations of the three credit markets.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical study in Vietnam and one of few in other developing countries simultaneously exploring the determinants of credit demand in and interrelationships among all three credit markets to provide more comprehensive and accurate results.

Land Loss with Compensation: What Are the Determinants of Income Among Households in Central Vietnam?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of household income following the loss of land owing to urban expansion in central Vietnam. Using data mainly from household surveys in the peri-urban areas of Hue city, the regression model indicates that demographic factors and livelihood strategy choices have important impacts on household income; financial compensation and support packages do not appear to be strong determinants of household income after the loss of land. This implies a failure of the current compensation programmes in the process of compulsory land acquisition, because the government believes that compensation packages make important contributions to livelihood reconstruction. This study suggests that investing in education and skill training for household members affected by land loss as well as assistance in converting compensation money into an adequate livelihood should be taken into consideration.

The impact of natural disasters on migration: findings from Vietnam

AbstractIncreasingly, studies are examining whether the incidence of natural disasters influences household migration. This paper examines whether the severity of natural disasters is important for migration decisions in Vietnam, rather than just examining their occurrence. Data for a sample of 1,003 farm households from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey are examined for the period 2006–2008. A residual generated regressor approach is adopted to isolate the direct impact of disasters on migration from the indirect impact they have on migration through reducing agricultural output and income. Findings suggest that more severe disasters are directly associated with a greater probability of migration. Furthermore, such outcomes are the same for poor householdsvis-à-vistheir non-poor counterparts.

Translocal Households and Family Visions in Contemporary Vietnam

Abstract In relation to the international academic debate on global neoliberal ideology and its influence on individual subjectivities, this paper examines family visions among the older and younger members of translocal households in contemporary rural Vietnam. Data from a longitudinal study of seven rural Vietnamese communities from 2000 to 2016 suggest that people in rural Vietnam consider the care of the young and the old, including its financial aspects, primarily an individual and family responsibility. They define a good life in terms not only of material and modern comfort, but also of family relations and responsibilities. While neoliberalism constitutes one ideological strand in contemporary Vietnamese policy circles, this paper suggests that it is ahistorical and simplistic to attribute people’s emphasis on individual and family responsibilities in caring for the young and the old to neoliberalism.

The Impact of Water-Related Pollution on Food Systems in Transition: The Case of Northern Vietnam

In Vietnam, agricultural practices such as fertilizer and pesticide use affect the landscape as well as the availability and safety of food. For instance, pesticides and fertilizer end up in surface water used for drinking water, crop irrigation, and in fish tanks. However, the link to actual food consumption and health is complex and information is lacking. This study considers potential water-related exposure to toxic hazards in northern Vietnam food systems, through the consumption of food commodities and of water. Water pollution is operationalized by considering the following two channels: (i) pesticide and nutrient leaching to surface water (share of surface water) and (ii) industrial runoff from facilities located in urban areas (share of urban areas). We explore how potential exposure to toxic hazard is related to food consumption choices. Using a sample of the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) for 2014, we estimate how shares of food consumption categories in total food consumption are affected by household and landscape characteristics, the latter also reflecting potential environmental pressures. In districts with higher shares of surface water, the share of fish consumption is higher and the share of meat consumption is lower. From an environmental and health perspective, households in water-rich areas thus may have a higher probability of being exposed to toxic chemicals due to higher fish consumption. In districts with higher shares of urban areas, the shares of meat and cereals in total food consumption value were lower, and the shares of fish and fruit and vegetables were higher. The results indicate that food consumption is affected by landscape characteristics that may also influence the level of exposure to water-related environmental pressures, and that this combined effect may potentially exacerbate food safety and health risks. The actual impact is more complex and should be analyzed with more sophisticated data and methods.

Household recovery from disaster: insights from Vietnam’s fish kill

ABSTRACT In April 2016, toxic chemicals leaked into the ocean in central Vietnam during a trial of a waste discharge system for a newly built steel plant. This resulted in a significant fish kill that impacted coastal livelihoods and the seafood sector across four provinces. We surveyed 520 households to understand how people experienced this environmental disaster, and their recovery strategies. On average people stopped all fishing-related activities for over nine months: this was a period of precarity for most households. Fish farming households suffered the greatest financial losses. Fishing households, while having a lower income, recovered more quickly than fish farming households since the mobility of boats and fishing grounds afforded flexibility and adaptability. In the longer term, relatively significant financial compensation from the company responsible for the spill made a difference to household recovery and their perceptions of the disaster. We argue that this toxic spill was a major stressor for coastal households in central Vietnam, and contribute to the precarity and the livelihood resilience literatures by offering a multi-dimensional perspective to understanding household recovery strategies. This study also draws attention to the importance of better understanding financial compensation as an aspect of recovery from human-induced disasters.

Early-Life exposure to rainfall shocks and gender gaps in employment: Findings from Vietnam

Abstract Despite the achievement of gender equity in education in many developing countries, a gender gap still exists with respect to formal employment. Through inhibiting women's empowerment and reducing the supply and productivity of labour, this gap results in poorer development outcomes. This paper examines whether exogenous rainfall shocks experienced in early life explain variations in future formal sector employment outcomes. It does so for Vietnam, a country that is highly vulnerable to rainfall shocks. The paper employs data from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey and rainfall data from the Gridded Monthly Time Series Dataset. Findings suggest that rainfall shocks experienced early in life have a long temporal reach by reducing the probability of formal sector employment for women but not for men. Other findings indicate that the gendered impact of rainfall shocks operates through differential effects on educational attainment and that shocks occurring in the first and second year of life are most important.

Investment of Rice Farming Households in Thailand and Vietnam

Investment of Rice Farming Households in Thailand and Vietnam

Landholdings, livelihood choices and household income in the Red River Delta, Vietnam

ABSTRACT Land scarcity has frequently been cited as the primary barrier preventing rural households from pursuing better livelihoods in Vietnam and other developing societies. In this paper, we investigate the role of landlessness and landholdings in the choice of livelihoods and in household income in the Red River Delta, the most densely populated region in Vietnam. Using data from the 2018 Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey, our cluster analysis classifies five livelihoods pursued by local households, namely informal wage-earning jobs, formal wage-earning jobs, nonfarm self-employment, agriculture, and non-labor livelihoods. Non-laboring, agricultural, or informal wage-earning households earn less per capita income on average than formal wage-earning or nonfarm self-employment households, according to both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Our regression analysis demonstrates that land scarcity is not a significant obstacle preventing rural people from seeking gainful livelihoods in the region. The finding suggests that improving education and supporting non-farm activities should be high-priority government policies for local households with limited land and education. Such policies are expected to help them not only transform their livelihoods but also improve their economic well-being.

Educational expansion and the economic value of education in Vietnam: An instrument-free analysis

Expansion of education has effects on many aspects of society. There are debates around a possible change in the economic return to education as it expands and by that education may have become a positional good. This study uses Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys (VHLSS) data over the period of 2002 to 2014 with a sample of 212,521 individuals to explore how educational expansion influences the strength of the relationship between education (its absolute and relative measures) and income. The instrument-free method was employed to minimize bias. Results suggest that as higher education expands, the effect of the absolute measure of the years of schooling on labor market outcomes does not differ, but the effect of its positional measure on these outcomes does. Likewise, as higher education expands, the effect of the absolute measure of higher education graduation on labor market outcomes does not vary, but the effect of its relative measure on these outcomes does. The findings support the positional theory of education, which predicts that the absolute level of education is not critical, but rather its level relative to that of other individuals.

Gender pay gap in Vietnam: a propensity score matching analysis

PurposeThis paper investigates the extent, the determinants and the change in the gender pay gap in Vietnam in the period 2010–2016 in order to provide suggestions for policy adjustment to narrow gender pay inequality more effectively.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the propensity score matching (PSM) method to examine inequality in pay between female and male earners sharing identical characteristics. The analysis is conducted for both the full sample and various characteristic-based subsamples. This procedure is conducted for 2010 and 2016 separately to discover the change in gap and inequality during this period.FindingsThe matching results based on the data sets taken from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) 2010 and 2016 affirm that gender income inequality in Vietnam, though persisted, decreased significantly in 2016 compared to 2010, and was insignificant in many subsamples in 2016. In addition to the observable determinants including educational level, occupation, economic sector and industry, unobservable factors are proved to also play an important role in creating the gender pay gap in Vietnam.Practical implicationsThe research findings suggest that policies aimed at mitigating gender pay inequality should take into account both observable characteristics and unobservable factors such as unobservable gender differences that affect wages and gender discrimination in pay.Originality/valueThis is the first study using a matching technique to investigate gender wage gap in Vietnam. With up-to-date data, longer research period and the superiority of the method used in dealing with sample selection bias, the results obtained are more robust, more detailed and reliable.

The effects of fuelwood on children’s schooling in rural Vietnam

Gathering fuelwood for cooking and heating represents a considerable time burden for households in rural Vietnam. In this paper we examine the effects of fuelwood use on children’s school attendance using a panel of households from the Vietnam Living Standards Survey. We match individual households to satellite imagery measuring leaf coverage at the time and location of each survey, providing a robust instrument to examine the impacts of resource collection on schooling. We find that using fuelwood as the primary energy source is associated with an 84 percentage point decrease in the likelihood of school enrollment. We also find mixed evidence that girls may be affected more severely than boys, but we are unable to rule out equal impacts across genders. Our results suggest that household energy choices and diminishing resource availability can have a lasting impact on childhood schooling and long-run poverty.

Returns to education in Vietnam: A changing landscape

Using data from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS), this paper examines the returns to education in Vietnam in 2002, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2016, and how these returns have changed over time. The returns to educations of men and women displayed a linear pattern in 2002, 2008 and 2010, with earnings rising with increased levels of education. The 2002 to 2010 period was one which saw particularly rapid increases in both the growth of educated labour supply and the returns to schooling for both males and females. The results also suggest that there existed substantial excess demand for male and female graduate labour over the period. However, the situation changed radically during the 2010 to 2012 period, despite the economy continuing to grow, the supply of educated labour expanded at a much slower rate and the wage premiums to education declined. Consequently, during 2010 to 2012 any excess demand for educated labour was eliminated in both the male and female labour markets. The results show that the nature of labour demand altered rapidly during the 2010 to 2016 period, with the relative demand for educated labour slowing substantially, which suggests that the trajectory of the Vietnamese economy has not recently been driven by a growth in higher value-added firms demanding ever higher quantities of educated labour. The periods 2012 to 2016 saw some stabilisation in the labour market, with the returns to education remaining relatively unchanged, albeit at a much lower level compared to 2010, and increases in the supply of educated workers to the labour market much lower than before. The study raises important policy questions regarding the future direction of policy approaches to both skills and FDI in Vietnam.

The Influence of Household Refrigerator Ownership on Diets in Vietnam

Refrigerator ownership accompanies socio-economic development, with the potential to change human diets. Household refrigerator ownership in Vietnam has increased from 13% to 59% between 2004-2014. This study estimates changes in food consumption and diet linkages with household refrigerator ownership in Vietnam, while controlling for socioeconomic variables. We use a two-step instrumental variable regression model on two panels of the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey covering 2004-2014. Our study finds refrigerator ownership to be significantly associated with decreases in per-capita calorie intake over both periods. Refrigerator ownership may be connected with households substituting lower-nutrient foods with higher ones, with substantial decreases in starchy staple food consumption connected with refrigerator ownership in both panels. For both periods, refrigerator ownership is significantly connected with increased dairy consumption, potentially reflecting the refrigerator increasing a household’s ability to store dairy products.

Determinants of catastrophic health expenditure in Vietnam.

The Government of Vietnam has set the goal of achieving universal health coverage (UHC) by 2025. Health insurance (HI) is being considered a tool to achieve this goal. However, out-of-pocket spending and catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) remain high. Research evidence on how to reduce these expenditures to achieve UHC is essential. Therefore, this study examines the determinants of CHE, especially the HI factor. To identify HI participation status and other factors associated with CHE, we use logistic regression on a dataset from the 2016 Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey. The study finds that HI is a protective factor against CHE, although this result is not always statistically significant across different subsamples. Moreover, the household head's age and employment status, household size, share of the elderly above 60 years, income, illness status, healthcare utilisation, availability of hospitals, commune health stations with medical doctors and place of residence all correlate with household CHE. Although there has been a rise in HI coverage, the financial protection capacity of HI schemes in Vietnam remains inadequate, particularly for households living in rural areas. Further investigations of the causal effect of HI, other health system factors and CHE in rural settings are necessary to reduce the incidence of CHE. Additionally, policies aimed at groups vulnerable to CHE, such as those with higher incidences of severe illness or inpatient admissions, low income, and higher age, should be considered.

Impact of health insurance on healthcare utilisation patterns in Vietnam: a survey-based analysis with propensity score matching method

ObjectivesThe study aims to evaluate the impact of the Revised Health Insurance Law 2014 on the utilisation of outpatient and inpatient care services, healthcare services utilisation at different levels of...

Does the microcredit intervention change the life of the low- and middle-income households in rural Vietnam? Evidence from panel data

Existing studies have shown the important role of microcredit on poverty reduction, especially in developing countries like Vietnam. Although most studies conclude the positive impact of microcredit participation on poverty reduction through income generation, there remain mixed results. Besides, there has been limited research done on children’s education in Vietnam. This study is to measure the impact of the microcredit programme of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) on poverty reduction (via income indicators) and children’s education (via the shares of kids and teenagers in school) of the poor- and middle-income households in rural Vietnam. The paper uses a set of econometric methods for static and dynamic analysis. The static models conclude that VBSP’s microcredit had significantly positive impacts on agricultural income per capita and significantly negative impacts on the total income per capita. The figures for non-farm non-wage income per capita and indicators of children’s schooling are not statistically significant. Moreover, the dynamic models indicate that the long-term impacts of microcredit on the selected outcomes are insignificant. From the estimated results, the study also suggests some policy implications.

The Effect of Internal Migrants on the Economic Lives of the Leftbehind Elderly in Vietnam

By analysing the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey in 2012 (VHLSS2012), which contained the data on remittances sent by the migrants to the households, the study discovered that internal migrants had a positive impact on poverty reduction and living conditions of the elderly left behind. Besides, the study also proved that the internal remittances made the income per capita distribution enlarge the inequality between the elderly household group receiving domestic remittances and the other groups. Although there were recently three consecutive surveys of 2014, 2016, and 2018, but these consisted of only the information on the migrant definition and had no precise details on remittance.

Impact of Trade Liberalization on Household Welfare: An Analysis Using Household Exposure-to-Trade Indices

This paper quantifies the impact of trade liberalization at the household level using data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey from 2002 to 2016. Household welfare is measured using income, expenditure, and vulnerability to poverty. Unlike previous studies, we address potential endogeneity at the household level by constructing household exposure-to-trade indices as a proxy for trade liberalization. These indices are advantageous as they capture the influence of trade liberalization at the national level and the households’ ability to respond to new opportunities. The results suggest that trade liberalization improves Vietnamese household income and expenditure via the export channel or the expansion of labor demand. Tariff reduction for exported goods is less favorable to household welfare. The impact of trade liberalization became smaller and less significant after the global downturn in 2008. Rural households suffered more vulnerability from trade, and the poor gained fewer benefits after the financial crisis in 2008.