We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Urban-biased Policies and the Increasing Rural–Urban Expenditure Gap in Vietnam in the 1990s.
- Authors
Fesselmeyer, Eric; Le, Kien T.
- Abstract
There was a significant and widening rural–urban gap during the economic boom in Vietnam in the 1990s. Using an econometric decomposition, we find that differences in individual characteristics such as education, ethnicity and age are the primary explanation for this widening gap, whereas differences in the returns to these characteristics are the primary explanation for the increase in the gap at higher percentiles. We then argue that government investment policies and the manipulation of price incentives were important factors behind the gap. In particular, we argue that government policies created some benefit to urban dwellers at the expense of rural areas, lending support to Lipton's urban-bias hypothesis, which states that government, under strong political pressure from the urban population, directs resources from rural to urban areas without consideration of efficiency or equity.
- Subjects
VIETNAM; REGIONAL economic disparities; VIETNAMESE economy; ECONOMETRICS; SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC factors; INVESTMENT policy; CITIES &; towns; RURAL geography
- Publication
Asian Economic Journal, 2010, Vol 24, Issue 2, p161
- ISSN
1351-3958
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1467-8381.2010.02034.x