IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/apacel/v28y2014i1p116-136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Poverty identification: practice and policy implications in Vietnam

Author

Listed:
  • Cuong Viet Nguyen
  • Anh Tran

Abstract

type="main"> To identify poor households, the government of Vietnam applies a combination of proxy means tests and quick collection of income data. This paper examines how well the government's poverty identification reaches the really poor in Vietnam. It is found that there is a large difference between the poverty rate for provinces and districts reported by the government and the rates estimated using expenditure and income data from independent household surveys. There is also a large difference between the poverty status of households identified by local authorities and the poverty status identified by income or expenditure data. More than 50 per cent of the poor households identified by local authorities are not poor in terms of income or expenditure measures. A better identification approach would be to use only proxy means tests and not income data collected using the simple questionnaire.

Suggested Citation

  • Cuong Viet Nguyen & Anh Tran, 2014. "Poverty identification: practice and policy implications in Vietnam," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 28(1), pages 116-136, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:apacel:v:28:y:2014:i:1:p:116-136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/apel.12046
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David E. Sahn & David Stifel, 2003. "Exploring Alternative Measures of Welfare in the Absence of Expenditure Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 49(4), pages 463-489, December.
    2. Chris Elbers & Jean O. Lanjouw & Peter Lanjouw, 2003. "Micro--Level Estimation of Poverty and Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(1), pages 355-364, January.
    3. Ahmed, Akhter U. & Bouis, Howarth E., 2002. "Weighing what's practical," FCND briefs 132, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Grosh, M.E. & Baker, J.L., 1995. "Proxy Means Tests for Targetting Social Programs. Simulations and Speculation," Papers 118, World Bank - Living Standards Measurement.
    5. Vivi Alatas & Abhijit Banerjee & Rema Hanna & Benjamin A. Olken & Julia Tobias, 2012. "Targeting the Poor: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1206-1240, June.
    6. Houssou, Nazaire & Zeller, Manfred & Alcaraz V., Gabriela & Johannsen, Julia & Schwarze, Stefan, 2010. "How Best to Target the Poor? An operational targeting of the poor using indicator-based proxy means tests," 2010 AAAE Third Conference/AEASA 48th Conference, September 19-23, 2010, Cape Town, South Africa 95780, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    7. Linh Vu & Bob Baulch, 2011. "Assessing Alternative Poverty Proxy Methods in Rural Vietnam," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 339-367, September.
    8. David P. Coady & Susan W. Parker, 2009. "Targeting Performance under Self-selection and Administrative Targeting Methods," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(3), pages 559-587, April.
    9. Ahmed, Akhter U. & Bouis, Howarth E., 2002. "Weighing what's practical: proxy means tests for targeting food subsidies in Egypt," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(5-6), pages 519-540.
    10. Nguyen Viet, Cuong, 2005. "Targeting the Poor in Vietnam using a Small Area Estimation Method," MPRA Paper 25761, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Nguyen, Cuong & Nguyen, Lam, 2017. "Intra-generational and intergenerational mobility in Vietnam," MPRA Paper 80083, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Gabriel Demombynes & Linh Hoang Vu, 2015. "Demystifying Poverty Measurement in Vietnam," World Bank Publications - Reports 21691, The World Bank Group.
    3. Anh Thu Quang Pham & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya & Ha Vu, 2020. "Targeting Administrative Regions for Multidimensional Poverty Alleviation: A Study on Vietnam," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 143-189, July.
    4. Hai Anh La & Duc Anh Dang, 2018. "Income under-reporting and tax evasion: How they impact inequality in Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series 148, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Phan, Van-Phuc, 2023. "Is the internet penetration pro-poor? Evidence from a panel data analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8).
    6. Nguyen, Cuong & Lo, Duc, 2016. "Testing Proxy Means Tests in the Field: Evidence from Vietnam," MPRA Paper 80002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ho, Manh-Toan, 2020. "The rise of research on development economics in Vietnam: Analyses and implications for the public and policymakers from SSHPA 2008-2020 dataset," Thesis Commons msy6e, Center for Open Science.
    8. , Aisdl, 2020. "The rise of research on development economics in Vietnam: Analyses and implications for the public and policymakers from SSHPA 2008-2020 dataset," OSF Preprints 9nbyr, Center for Open Science.
    9. Hai Anh La & Duc Anh Dang, 2018. "Income under-reporting and tax evasion: How they impact inequality in Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-148, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Manh-Toan Ho & Ngoc-Thang B. Le & Manh-Tung Ho & Quan-Hoang Vuong, 2022. "A bibliometric review on development economics research in Vietnam from 2008 to 2020," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 2939-2969, October.
    11. Cuong V. Nguyen & Nguyet M. Pham, 2018. "Economic growth, inequality, and poverty in Vietnam," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 32(1), pages 45-58, May.
    12. Ho, Manh-Toan, 2020. "The rise of research on development economics in Vietnam: Analyses and implications for the public and policymakers from SSHPA 2008-2020 dataset," Thesis Commons msy6e_v1, Center for Open Science.

    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. Nguyen, Cuong & Lo, Duc, 2016. "Testing Proxy Means Tests in the Field: Evidence from Vietnam," MPRA Paper 80002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Brown, Caitlin & Ravallion, Martin & van de Walle, Dominique, 2018. "A poor means test? Econometric targeting in Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 109-124.
    3. Schleicher, Michael & Souares, Aurélia & Pacere, Athanase Narangoro & Sauerborn, Rainer & Klonner, Stefan, 2016. "Decentralized versus Statistical Targeting of Anti-Poverty Programs: Evidence from Burkina Faso," Working Papers 0623, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    4. John A. Maluccio, 2009. "Household targeting in practice: The Nicaraguan Red de Protección Social," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 1-23.
    5. Stoeffler, Quentin & Mills, Bradford & del Ninno, Carlo, 2016. "Reaching the Poor: Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 244-263.
    6. Christophe Muller & Sami Bibi, 2006. "Focused Targeting Against Poverty Evidence From Tunisia," Working Papers. Serie AD 2006-01, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    7. González-Flores, Mario & Heracleous, Maria & Winters, Paul, 2012. "Leaving the Safety Net: An Analysis of Dropouts in an Urban Conditional Cash Transfer Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(12), pages 2505-2521.
    8. Houssou, Nazaire & Zeller, Manfred & Alcaraz V., Gabriela & Johannsen, Julia & Schwarze, Stefan, 2010. "How Best to Target the Poor? An operational targeting of the poor using indicator-based proxy means tests," 2010 AAAE Third Conference/AEASA 48th Conference, September 19-23, 2010, Cape Town, South Africa 95780, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    9. Adesina, Adedoyin & Akogun, Oladele & Dillon, Andrew & Friedman, Jed & Njobdi, Sani & Serneels, Pieter, 2017. "Robustness and External Validity: What do we Learn from Repeated Study Designs over Time?," 2018 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 5-7, 2018, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 266292, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Christophe Muller, 2007. "Anti-Poverty Transfers without Riots in Tunisia," Working Papers DT/2007/08, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    11. Sharif, Iffath A., 2012. "Can Proxy Means Testing Improve the Targeting Performance of Social Safety Nets in Bangladesh?," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 35(2), pages 1-43, June.
    12. Baird, Sarah & McIntosh, Craig & Özler, Berk, 2013. "The regressive demands of demand-driven development," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 27-41.
    13. Mark Schreiner, 2015. "A Comparison of Two Simple, Low-Cost Ways for Local, Pro-Poor Organizations to Measure the Poverty of Their Participants," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 537-569, November.
    14. Akogun, Oladele & Dillon, Andrew & Friedman, Jed & Prasann, Ashesh & Serneels, Pieter, 2017. "Productivity and Health: Alternative Productivity Measures using Physical Activity," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258380, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. World Bank, 2009. "Social Assistance Transfers in Bosnia and Herzegovina : Moving Toward a More Sustainable and Better-Targeted Safety Net," World Bank Publications - Reports 18607, The World Bank Group.
    16. Aguila, Emma & Kapteyn, Arie & Tassot, Caroline, 2017. "Designing cash transfer programs for an older population: The Mexican case," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 111-121.
    17. Barrios, Erniel B. & Mina, Christian D., 2009. "Profiling Poverty with Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines," Discussion Papers DP 2009-29, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    18. Jehu-Appiah, Caroline & Aryeetey, Genevieve & Spaan, Ernst & Agyepong, Irene & Baltussen, Rob, 2010. "Efficiency, equity and feasibility of strategies to identify the poor: An application to premium exemptions under National Health Insurance in Ghana," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(2-3), pages 166-173, May.
    19. World Bank, 2009. "Guatemala - Poverty assessment : good performance at low levels," World Bank Publications - Reports 3063, The World Bank Group.
    20. Adama BAH, 2013. "Finding the Best Indicators to Identify the Poor," Working Papers 201324, CERDI.

    More about this item

    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:bla:apacel:v:28:y:2014:i:1:p:116-136. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14678411 .

    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.