Abstract
This paper examines the issue of horizontal inequalities in Vietnam over the past 20 years. Using data from three recent Vietnam population censuses (1989, 1999, and 2009) and three Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys (1998, 2008, 2012), we estimated numerous measures on inequalities between five groups against four welfare indicators. Our results show that horizontal inequality matters in Vietnam, in particular for ethnicity, region, and rural/urban groups. While there has been an improvement in horizontal inequality in education, this paper shows little change in other welfare indicators, in particular poverty. We also found that horizontal inequality does matter for poverty reduction in Vietnam and it needs more attention when designing poverty policies in the future.
Keywords
Vietnam Horizontal inequality Ethnics Regions Poverty EducationJEL Classification
C25 D63 I24 I32 O18References
- Birdsall, N., Pinckney, T., & Sabot, R. (1996). Why low inequality spurs growth: Savings and investment by the poor. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
- Bourguignon, F. (2004). The poverty-growth-inequality triangle. The paper was presented at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, February 4, 2004.Google Scholar
- Dang, H. A. (2012). A widening poverty gap for ethnic minorities. In G. H. Hall & H. A. Patrinos (Eds.), Indigenous peoples, poverty and development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
- Dang, T. T. H. (2011). Poverty reduction in Vietnam: The effects of shocks and growth patterns. Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow.Google Scholar
- Do, T. K. (2015). Trends in inequalities in living standards in Vietnam for 20 years of innovation (1992/93–2012). In Proceedings of the scientific conference on socioeconomic forecast serves medium-term planning in the context of international integration. Hanoi: Hong Duc Publishing House.Google Scholar
- Doan, H. Y., Nguyen, T. T. T., & Nguyen, H. L. (2015). Analysis of income inequality by regions in Vietnam through the approach of income decompositions. In Proceedings of the scientific conference on socioeconomic forecast serves medium-term planning in the context of international integration. Hanoi: Hong Duc Publishing House.Google Scholar
- Gabriel, D., & Vu, L. H. (2015). Demystifying poverty measurement in Vietnam. World Bank Vietnam development economics discussion paper 1. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
- Gisselquist, R., & McDoom, O. S. (2015). The conceptualization and measurement of ethnic and religious divisions. UNU-WIDER working paper 2015/022. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER.Google Scholar
- Glewwe, P., Gragnolati, M., & Zaman, H. (2002). Who gained from Vietnam’s boom in the 1990s? Economic Development and Cultural Change, 50(4), 773–792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Lee, S. (2008). How do women fare in education, employment and health?. Hanoi: World Bank Vietnam.Google Scholar
- Luong, T. N. O. (2015). The impact of gender inequality to grow in Vietnam. Ph.D. thesis, CIEM.Google Scholar
- Naschold, F. (2002). Why inequality matters for poverty. Briefing Paper 2. London: Overseas Development Institute.Google Scholar
- Nguyen, T. T. P., & Bob, B. (2007). A review of ethnic minority policies and programs in Vietnam. Working paper.Google Scholar
- Nguyen, T. H., & Luu, B. N. (2015). Approach innovation and growing strategic to address income inequality in Vietnam. In Proceedings of the scientific conference on socioeconomic forecast serves medium-term planning in the context of international integration. Hanoi: Hong Duc Publishing House.Google Scholar
- Nguyen, V. C. (2012). Gender equality in education, health care and employment: Evidence from Vietnam. Working paper. Germany: University Library of Munich.Google Scholar
- Rodger, Y., & Menon, N. (2010). Gender differences in socioeconomic status and health: Evidence from Vietnam household living standard survey in 2008. Hanoi: World Bank Vietnam.Google Scholar
- Singhal, S., & Beck, U. (2015). Ethnic disadvantage in Vietnam: Evidence using panel data. UNU-WIDER Working paper 2015/097. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER.Google Scholar
- SRV (Socialist Republic of Vietnam) (2015). 15 Years achieving the Vietnam millennium development goals. A country report.Google Scholar
- UNICEF and FHI 360. (2015). Does horizontal education inequality lead to violent conflict?. New York: UNICEF.Google Scholar
- Van de Walle, D., & Gunewardena, D. (2001). Sources of ethnic inequality in Viet Nam. Journal of Development Economics, 65(1), 177–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- VGSO (Viet Nam General Statistics Office). (2010). The 2009 Vietnam population and housing census: Completed results. Hanoi: Statistical Publishing House.Google Scholar
- Vu, X. N. H., & Dang, T. T. H. (2015). Scoping Study on integration of poverty and sustainability into national development planning: Vietnam country report. Hanoi: UNDP.Google Scholar
- Vu, D. K., Van Hoang, M., Kim, B. G., Lars, W., & Nawi, N. (2012). Horizontal inequity in public health care service utilization for non-communicable diseases in urban Vietnam. Global Health Action. https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.24919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- World Bank Institute. (2015). Understanding the determinants of poverty. In Introduction to poverty analysis (Chap. 8, pp. 124–136).Google Scholar
Copyright information
Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the UNU-WIDER, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, transform, or build upon this book or a part thereof, you must distribute your contributions under the same licence as the original.