Poverty Dynamics During Trade Reform: Evidence From Rural Vietnam

Abstract

This paper implements and adapts the conceptual framework developed by Winters (2002) that identifies the transmission mechanisms between trade policy reform and household welfare outcomes. We make use of household panel data from Vietnam collected in two years, 1992-93 and 1997-98 that span the very earliest years of the reform period and its immediate after effects. Poverty dynamics are modeled using changes in consumption expenditure and poverty transition models. The trade effect is captured by a set of variables that are most likely to have an impact on rural poverty, namely prices of staples and employment in the export sector. We show that trade liberalization has a material and positive effect on rural household welfare and this trade effect is largely transmitted to the poor through the labor market channel.

Transient rural livelihoods and poverty in Ghana

“…We observe that welfare does not discriminate against living in a female headed household, which is consistent with findings from some developing country studies (e.g. Appleton, 1996;Justino et al, 2008) but contrary to results from others (e.g. Finan et al, 2005;Kijima and Gonzalez, 2013;Mensah et al, 2014).…”

“…For example, a household whose head completed secondary or higher education has, on average, 18 percent higher consumption than a household whose head has no formal education. Our estimate is comparably larger than the 8 percent reported by Justino et al (2008) for Vietnamese household panel data but considerably lower than that reported by Ackah et al (2014) who used nationally representative data from Ghana but employed income as the welfare measure. In addition to the positive welfare effect of head's education, having an educated spouse in the household significantly contributes to consumption welfare gains.…”

“…Finan et al, 2005;Justino et al, 2008;Ogundari and Aromolaran, 2013;Dzanku et al, 2015), formal education has high welfare value. We observe that household head's education is associated with significant positive welfare benefits.…”

Transitions between states of labor-force participation among older Israelis

“…This approach was used by other transitions studies (Glewwe et al 2002;Niimi et al 2004Niimi et al , 2007Justino et al 2008).…”

Impact of decreasing staple food production capacity on food self-sufficiency in poor rural communities in Mexico

“…Los cambios estructurales tienen diferentes efectos según las condiciones de cada país. Así, las reformas asociadas a la liberalización del comercio pueden convertirse en una política contra la pobreza y una estrategia de desarrollo (Winters et al, 2004), tener efectos positivos en los hogares rurales pobres a través del mercado de trabajo (Justino et al, 2008), o por el contrario, ofrecer oportunidades de acumulación y éxito para agricultores de mediana y gran escala, mientras los de pequeña buscan alternativas a la agricultura o se condenan a reducir los niveles de productividad (Oya, 2001).…”