IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aag/wpaper/v23y2019i3p122-153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Gender Wealth Gap by Household Head in Vietnam

Author

Listed:
  • Duc Hong Vo

    (Business and Economics Research Group, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Vietnam)

  • Phuong Doan Ho

    (Vietnam-Netherlands Economics Program)

  • Chi Minh Ho

    (Business and Economics Research Group, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Vietnam)

  • Michael McAleer

    (Department of Finance, Asia University, Taiwan)

Abstract

While the gender income gap has been examined extensively, the gender wealth gap has largely been ignored, especially for emerging markets such as Vietnam. The lack of serious analysis has caused great concern for practitioners and policymakers as public policy targeting the inequality in income and wealth across genders has not achieved their desired outcomes. Previous studies on gender in emerging markets have focused on income rather than wealth. This paper provides a comprehensive review and insightful policy recommendations on the important issue. Using data from Vietnam’s Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS), the paper examines the gender wealth inequality for sole-head families and partner-head families in Vietnam in 2016, the latest year for which data are available. In addition, the paper extends the Machado-Mata decomposition technique based on the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, which was developed for quantile regressions, to examine the relationship across the distributions of wealth accumulation. The empirical findings from the paper indicate that, among partnered heads, female-head families experienced a larger gap of wealth accumulation. At the lower quantiles of wealth accumulation, the gender wealth gap is primarily associated with different characteristics for both sole and partner-head households. At the median and upper tails of the distribution of wealth accumulation, gender differences in endowments (such as education level and living area) are the main determinants in explaining the wealth gap. Given the empirical findings in the paper, policy implications emerge for the Vietnam Government to consider policies targeting a support for females as female-head families appear to be poorer than their male-head counterparts in terms of wealth.

Suggested Citation

  • Duc Hong Vo & Phuong Doan Ho & Chi Minh Ho & Michael McAleer, 2019. "The Gender Wealth Gap by Household Head in Vietnam," Advances in Decision Sciences, Asia University, Taiwan, vol. 23(3), pages 122-153, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:aag:wpaper:v:23:y:2019:i:3:p:122-153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://iads.site/The-Gender-Wealth-Gap-by-Household-Head-in-Vietnam
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucie Schmidt & Purvi Sevak, 2006. "Gender, Marriage, And Asset Accumulation In The United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 139-166.
    2. Pham, Thai-Hung & Reilly, Barry, 2007. "The gender pay gap in Vietnam, 1993-2002: A quantile regression approach," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 775-808, October.
    3. Anglade, Boaz & Useche, Pilar & Deere, Carmen Diana, 2017. "Decomposing the Gender Wealth Gap in Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 19-31.
    4. Carmen Diana Deere & Cheryl Doss, 2006. "The Gender Asset Gap: What Do We Know And Why Does It Matter?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 1-50.
    5. Tracey Warren, 2006. "Moving Beyond The Gender Wealth Gap: On Gender, Class, Ethnicity, And Wealth Inequalities In The United Kingdom," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 195-219.
    6. Erin Ruel & Robert Hauser, 2013. "Explaining the Gender Wealth Gap," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1155-1176, August.
    7. José A. F. Machado & José Mata, 2005. "Counterfactual decomposition of changes in wage distributions using quantile regression," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 445-465, May.
    8. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt & Brian McCaig, 2017. "Growth with equity: income inequality in Vietnam, 2002–14," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(1), pages 25-46, March.
    9. Cheryl R Doss & Carmen Diana Deere & Abena D Oduro & Hema Swaminathan, 2014. "The Gender Asset and Wealth Gaps," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 57(3-4), pages 400-409, December.
    10. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    11. Amy Liu, 2004. "Sectoral gender wage gap in Vietnam," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 225-239.
    12. Siobhan Austen & Rachel Ong & Sherry Bawa & Therese Jefferson, 2015. "Exploring recent increases in the gender wealth gap among Australia’s single households," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(1), pages 3-28, March.
    13. John Gibson & Trinh Le & Grant Scobie, 2006. "Household Bargaining Over Wealth And The Adequacy Of Women'S Retirement Incomes In New Zealand," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 221-246.
    14. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    15. Siobhan Austen & Therese Jefferson & Rachel Ong, 2014. "The Gender Gap in Financial Security: What We Know and Don't Know about Australian Households," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 25-52, July.
    16. Liu, Amy Y.C., 2004. "Gender wage gap in Vietnam: 1993 to 1998," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 586-596, September.
    17. Grinstein-Weiss, Michal & Hun Yeo, Yeong & Zhan, Min & Charles, Pajarita, 2008. "Asset holding and net worth among households with children: Differences by household type," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 62-78, January.
    18. Shorrocks, A F, 1982. "Inequality Decomposition by Factor Components," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 193-211, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arteconi, Alessia & Del Zotto, Luca & Tascioni, Roberto & Cioccolanti, Luca, 2019. "Modelling system integration of a micro solar Organic Rankine Cycle plant into a residential building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Petrongolo, Barbara & Ronchi, Maddalena, 2020. "Gender gaps and the structure of local labor markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Fröberg, Emelie & Säve-Söderbergh, Jenny & Wahlund, Richard & Wiley Wakeman, S., 2023. "The promise (and peril) in approaching gender parity: Preregistered survey experiments addressing gender inequality in negotiations," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Tamakloe, Reuben & Zhang, Kaihan & Atandzi, Jonathan & Park, Dongjoo, 2024. "Examining urban delivery service user profiles and determinants of drone delivery adoption in Ghana considering usage before and after the COVID-19 pandemic," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 279-294.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anglade, Boaz & Useche, Pilar & Deere, Carmen Diana, 2017. "Decomposing the Gender Wealth Gap in Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 19-31.
    2. Sierminska, Eva & Piazzalunga, Daniela & Grabka, Markus M., 2018. "Transitioning towards more equality? Wealth gender differences and the changing role of explanatory factors over time," GLO Discussion Paper Series 252, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Waitkus, Nora & Minkus, Lara, 2021. "Investigating the gender wealth gap across occupational classes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108206, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Sierminska, Eva M. & Frick, Joachim R. & Grabka, Markus M., 2010. "Examining the gender wealth gap," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 62(4), pages 669-690.
    5. Sierminska, Eva & Frick, Joachim R. & Grabka, Markus M., 2008. "Examining the Gender Wealth Gap in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 3573, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Schneebaum, Alyssa & Rehm, Miriam & Mader, Katharina & Klopf, Patricia & Hollan, Katarina, 2014. "The Gender Wealth Gap in Europe," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 186, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    7. Ashwini Deshpande & Smriti Sharma, 2016. "Disadvantage and discrimination in self-employment: caste gaps in earnings in Indian small businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 325-346, February.
    8. Erin Ruel & Robert Hauser, 2013. "Explaining the Gender Wealth Gap," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1155-1176, August.
    9. Siobhan Austen & Rachel Ong & Sherry Bawa & Therese Jefferson, 2015. "Exploring recent increases in the gender wealth gap among Australia’s single households," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(1), pages 3-28, March.
    10. Deshpande, Ashwini & Goel, Deepti & Khanna, Shantanu, 2018. "Bad Karma or Discrimination? Male–Female Wage Gaps Among Salaried Workers in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 331-344.
    11. Tamar Khitarishvili, 2016. "Two tales of contraction: gender wage gap in Georgia before and after the 2008 crisis," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-28, December.
    12. Trinh Thi, Huong & Simioni, Michel & Thomas-Agnan, Christine, 2018. "Decomposition of changes in the consumption of macronutrients in Vietnam between 2004 and 2014," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 259-275.
    13. Francesco Devicienti, 2010. "Shapley-value decompositions of changes in wage distributions: a note," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(1), pages 35-45, March.
    14. Kang, Woojin & Imai, Katsushi S., 2012. "Pro-poor growth, poverty and inequality in rural Vietnam," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 527-539.
    15. Karla Cordova & Markus M. Grabka & Eva Sierminska, 2022. "Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 755-810, October.
    16. Alyssa Schneebaum & Miriam Rehm & Katharina Mader & Katarina Hollan, 2018. "The Gender Wealth Gap Across European Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 295-331, June.
    17. Miriam Rehm & Alyssa Schneebaum & Barbara Schuster, 2022. "Intra-Couple Wealth Inequality: What’s Socio-Demographics Got to Do with it?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 681-720, October.
    18. Rehm, Miriam & Schneebaum, Alyssa & Schuster, Barbara, 2022. "Intra-couple wealth inequality: What's demographics got to do with it?," ifso working paper series 22, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Socioeconomics (ifso).
    19. Ha, Hu Van & Doan, Tinh & Holmes, Mark, 2022. "What Accounts for Gender Income Inequality? Empirical Evidence from Vietnamese Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises," Journal of Economic Development, The Economic Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, vol. 47(1), pages 65-84, March.
    20. Rohan Best & Noura Saba, 2021. "Quantifying Australia’s Gender Superannuation Gap," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 97(318), pages 410-423, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender wealth gap; male-head households; female-head households; quantile regressions; wealth gap decomposition; Vietnam.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aag:wpaper:v:23:y:2019:i:3:p:122-153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Vincent Pan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dfasitw.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.