This book presents the key findings from a new poverty assessment for Vietnam, led jointly by the World Bank and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS). It takes a fresh look at the lives of poor men, women, and children, and explores the constraints and opportunities they face today in rising out of poverty. The book aims to do three things. First, it proposes revisions to Vietnam’s poverty monitoring system—via better data, updated welfare aggregates, and new poverty lines—to bring these more in line with economic and social conditions in present-day Vietnam. Second, it revisits the stylized facts about deprivation and poverty in Vietnam, and develops an updated profile and diagnostic of poverty using data from the most recent Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS 2010), complemented by new qualitative field studies. Third, it aims to forge a consensus around some of the key challenges for reducing extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity over the next decade, including changing regional patterns of poverty and wealth, high and persistent poverty among ethnic minorities, substantial and increasing vulnerability, and rising inequality in outcomes and opportunities.

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Politik - Internationale Politik - Region: Südasien, Note: keine, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), Veranstaltung: Democratic Peace Theory, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The Bertelsmann Foundation states that Vietnam, much like China, shows the tendency of delinking economic development from the transformation towards more democracy. They stress the fact that the responsible elites avoid "political openness" while aiming at swift transformation towards a market economy. Furthermore, they claim that these developments are "symptomatic" for the region and that their economic success makes this style of polity and politics attractive to others (Bertelsmann Foundation 2008). This typical euro-centrist view of the Asian developing economies has the idea of input-legitimacy at its center. However, the legitimacy of politics and policies in low-income countries is much more dependent on their outcomes in terms of inclusive growth and poverty alleviation. The leading question is therefore: Is Vietnam able to significantly improve the income and consequently, the well-being of the majority of its population, and can its development be a model for the region? This paper explores Vietnam's record of development, poverty reduction and inequality in comparison to its neighbor states. The following part will examine key policies and underlying reforms that were conductive to pro-poor growth in Vietnam as well as remaining challenges.

With the adoption of new market-oriented policies, Vietnam has transformed itself from one of the world's poorest countries during the 1980s, into an economy with one of the highest growth rates during the 1990s. Using macroeconomic and household survey data, this publication examines a range of issues including: the causes of Vietnam's economic growth and future prospects; the impact on household welfare and poverty levels, school enrolment, child health and other socioeconomic outcomes; and the nature of poverty in Vietnam and the effectiveness of government policies for poverty reduction, drawing lessons for Vietnam and for other low-income developing countries.

This book illustrates the changing ways in which people have accumulated wealth, social and cultural capital in Vietnam's move from a socialist to a market-oriented society.

Vietnam's rapid growth has transformed the country, reducing poverty from about 75 percent of the population to about 50 percent. At the same time, its transition from a planned to a market economy has created new challenges for public policy in a wide range of areas. This volume explores issues such as which macroeconomic and structural reforms led to growth, what effect reform has had on the household economy, and how the transition has affected education, health, fertility, and child nutrition. It provides an analysis of economic and social policies and shows how micro-level data can be used to analyze the likely effect of different government expenditures and activities. It also focuses on the effect different policies have on the poor and challenges stereotypes about poverty-focused expenditures.

This book is a case study of Vietnam's efforts to fight poverty using market-oriented land reforms. In the 1980s and 1990s, the country undertook major institutional reforms, and an impressive reduction in poverty followed. But what role did the reforms play? Did the efficiency gains from reform come at a cost to equity? Were there both winners and losers? Was rising rural landlessness in the wake of reforms a sign of success or failure? 'Land in Transition' investigates the impacts on living standards of the two stages of land law reform: in 1988, when land was allocated to households administratively and output markets were liberalized; and in 1993, when official land titles were introduced and land transactions were permitted for the first time since communist rule began. To fully assess the poverty impacts of these changes, the authors' analysis of household surveys is guided by both economic theory and knowledge of the historical and social contexts. The book delineates lessons from Vietnam's experience and their implications for current policy debates in China and elsewhere.

Trade policies can promote aggregate efficiency, but the ensuing structural adjustments generally create both winners and losers. From an incomes perspective, trade liberalization can raise gross domestic product per capita, but rates of emergence from poverty depend on individual household characteristics of economic participation and asset holding. To fully realize the growth potential of trade, while limiting the risk of rising inequality, policies need to better account for microeconomic heterogeneity. One approach to this is geographic targeting that shifts resources to poor areas. This study combines an integrated microsimulation-computable general equilibrium model with small area estimation to evaluate the spatial incidence of Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organization. Provincial-level poverty reduction after full liberalization was heterogeneous, ranging from 2.2 percent to 14.3 percent. Full liberalization will benefit the poor on a national basis, but the northwestern area of Vietnam is likely to lag behind. Furthermore, poverty can be shown to increase under comparable scenarios.