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Remittances can potentially help to promote economic development by providing a mechanism to share risks, reduce poverty, and improve equality. However, the overall impacts of remittances are uncertain from the view of economic theory as different mechanisms lead to opposite impacts. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has experienced a dramatic growth in remittance flows from abroad. Vietnam is a unique case for study, as economic motives historically played a smaller role in outward migration. Fortunately, household survey data is available for this time period, allowing for a detailed analysis of the impacts of international remittances on Vietnam. Specifically, we examine the characteristics of recipients and the impacts of international remittances on economic inequality and poverty. We conclude that international remittances are helping to improve equality. As such, new development policies must also account for potential impacts on remittance flows.2

We identify determinants of elderly poverty in Vietnam using household survey data from 2004. The elderly living in urban and rural areas face significantly different conditions. Some factors impact poverty in both urban and rural areas (e.g. age, marital status, region and remittance receipts), some factors are insignificant in both areas (e.g. living arrangements and household head characteristics) and some factors have a differing impact in the two areas (e.g. gender, ethnicity, and household composition and size). With these findings, we formulate policy priorities, including reducing regional disparities, promoting the rural economy and reforming social security.

Depression is one of the leading causes of disease burdens in recent years, and it is expected to continue to be so in the coming decades. Depression among older people (defined as those 60 years and older) is associated with disability, increased mortality, and poorer outcomes from physical illness, but it is often under-recognized and under-treated since people know little about the underlying factors influencing it in the elderly, and how they are correlated. This paper aimed to investigate the various factors associated with depressive symptoms among Vietnam's elderly population. We used the first-ever nationally representative data for older people, namely, the Vietnam Aging Survey (VNAS) in 2011, along with probit regression models to identify these factors. We found that, for both urban and rural areas, older people who experienced domestic violence, who did not have enough finance for daily living, and who lived alone were more likely to be depressed than their counterparts. In contrast, marital status, educational level, working status, mutual support between older people and their children, and participation in social activities were not factors significantly related to their depression. Due to different living conditions and arrangements, the depression contexts of urban and rural older people were significantly determined by different factors, such as the roles in family decision-making and the burden of care of great-grandchildren or other family members.