IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2018-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic and non-economic returns to Communist Party membership in Vietnam

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Markussen
  • Quang-Thanh Ngo

Abstract

Single-party political systems exist in a number of countries, such as China and Vietnam. In these countries, party membership is potentially an important source of economic and social status. This paper investigates these effects and the mechanisms behind them. In particular, we use household- and individual-level panel data to analyse the causes and consequences of Communist Party membership in rural areas of Vietnam. Fixed effects models are employed to control for unobserved differences between party members and others.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Markussen & Quang-Thanh Ngo, 2018. "Economic and non-economic returns to Communist Party membership in Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-46, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2018-46
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2018-46.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Appleton & John Knight & Lina Song & Qingjie Xia, 2009. "The Economics of Communist Party Membership: The Curious Case of Rising Numbers and Wage Premium during China's Transition," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 256-275.
    2. Elizabeth Monk-Turner & Charlie Turner, 2012. "Subjective Wellbeing in a Southwestern Province in China," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 357-369, April.
    3. Zhang, Jian & Giles, John & Rozelle, Scott, 2012. "Does it pay to be a cadre? Estimating the returns to being a local official in rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 337-356.
    4. Markussen, Thomas & Ngo, Quang-Thanh, 2019. "Economic and non-economic returns to communist party membership in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 370-384.
    5. Li, Hongbin & Meng, Lingsheng & Shi, Xinzheng & Wu, Binzhen, 2012. "Does having a cadre parent pay? Evidence from the first job offers of Chinese college graduates," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 513-520.
    6. Quoc-Anh Do & Kieu-Trang Nguyen & Anh N. Tran, 2017. "One Mandarin Benefits the Whole Clan: Hometown Favoritism in an Authoritarian Regime," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 1-29, October.
    7. Dilip Mookherjee & Pranab K. Bardhan, 2000. "Capture and Governance at Local and National Levels," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 135-139, May.
    8. Frye, Timothy & Shleifer, Andrei, 1997. "The Invisible Hand and the Grabbing Hand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 354-358, May.
    9. Hongbin Li & PakWai Liu & Junsen Zhang & Ning Ma, 2007. "Economic Returns to Communist Party Membership: Evidence From Urban Chinese Twins," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(523), pages 1504-1520, October.
    10. Fredrik Carlsson & Peter Martinsson & Ping Qin & Matthias Sutter, 2009. "Household decision making and the influence of spouses' income, education, and communist party membership: A field experiment in rural China," Working Papers 2009-09, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    11. Li, Hongbin & Meng, Lingsheng & Wang, Qian & Zhou, Li-An, 2008. "Political connections, financing and firm performance: Evidence from Chinese private firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 283-299, October.
    12. Appleton, Simon & Song, Lina, 2008. "Life Satisfaction in Urban China: Components and Determinants," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2325-2340, November.
    13. Liu, Zhiqiang, 2003. "The Economic Impact and Determinants of Investment in Human and Political Capital in China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(4), pages 823-849, July.
    14. Mara Faccio, 2006. "Politically Connected Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 369-386, March.
    15. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    16. Knight, John & Gunatilaka, Ramani, 2010. "Great Expectations? The Subjective Well-being of Rural-Urban Migrants in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 113-124, January.
    17. John Knight & Linda Yueh, 2008. "The role of social capital in the labour market in China1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 16(3), pages 389-414, July.
    18. Adam Fforde, 2017. "The emerging core characteristics of Vietnam's political economy," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 31(2), pages 45-60, November.
    19. Thomas Markussen, 2011. "Inequality and Political Clientelism: Evidence from South India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(11), pages 1721-1738.
    20. Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Atif Mian, 2005. "Do Lenders Favor Politically Connected Firms? Rent Provision in an Emerging Financial Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(4), pages 1371-1411.
    21. Morduch, Jonathan & Sicular, Terry, 2000. "Politics, growth, and inequality in rural China: does it pay to join the Party?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 331-356, September.
    22. Shuang Li & Ming Lu & Hiroshi Sato, 2009. "Power as a Driving Force of Inequality in China: How Do Party Membership and Social Networks Affect Pay in Different Ownership Sectors?," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 55(3-4), pages 624-647.
    23. Angus Deaton, 2008. "Income, Health, and Well-Being around the World: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 53-72, Spring.
    24. Markussen, Thomas & Ngo, Quang-Thanh, 2019. "Economic and non-economic returns to communist party membership in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 370-384.
    25. Appold, Stephen J & Phong, Dinh the, 2001. "Patron-Client Relationships in a Restructuring Economy: An Exploration of Interorganizational Linkages in Vietnam," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(1), pages 47-76, October.
    26. Ivan Szelenyi, 1987. "The Prospects and Limits of the East European New Class Project: An Auto-critical Reflection on The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power," Politics & Society, , vol. 15(2), pages 103-144, June.
    27. World Bank, 2011. "World Development Report 2011 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2011 : Conflits, sécurité et développement - Abrégé]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4389.
    28. John Knight & Lina Song, 2003. "Increasing urban wage inequality in China," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 11(4), pages 597-619, December.
    29. Markussen, Thomas & Tarp, Finn, 2014. "Political connections and land-related investment in rural Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 291-302.
    30. John Rand, 2017. "Are politically connected firms less constrained in credit markets?," WIDER Working Paper Series 200, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    31. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/sj22pruud8a7b8cdlvom4sbtp is not listed on IDEAS
    32. Quoc Hoang Dinh & Thomas Bernhard Dufhues & Gertrud Buchenrieder, 2012. "Do Connections Matter? Individual Social Capital and Credit Constraints in Vietnam," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 24(3), pages 337-358, July.
    33. John Bishop & Haiyong Liu, 2008. "Liberalization and rent-seeking in China’s labor market," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 151-164, June.
    34. Helliwell, John & Layard, Richard & Sachs, Jeffrey, 2012. "World happiness report," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 47487, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    35. Tarp, Finn (ed.), 2017. "Growth, Structural Transformation, and Rural Change in Viet Nam: A Rising Dragon on the Move," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198796961.
    36. John Rand, 2017. "Are politically connected firms less constrained in credit markets?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-200, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    37. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Report 2012 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2012]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4391.
    38. Raymond Fisman, 2001. "Estimating the Value of Political Connections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1095-1102, September.
    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. Markussen, Thomas & Ngo, Quang-Thanh, 2019. "Economic and non-economic returns to communist party membership in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 370-384.
    2. Phan, Van-Phuc, 2023. "Is the internet penetration pro-poor? Evidence from a panel data analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8).
    3. Trinh, Trong-Anh & Feeny, Simon & Posso, Alberto, 2022. "Political connections and post-disaster assistance in rural Vietnam," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Futaba Ishizuka, 2020. "Political Elite in Contemporary Vietnam: The Origin and Evolution of the Dominant Stratum," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 58(4), pages 276-300, December.
    5. Emi Kojin, 2020. "Diversifying Factors of Income Inequality in the Rural Mekong Delta: Evidence of Commune‐Level Heterogeneity," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 58(4), pages 360-391, December.
    6. Ngo, Thanh Quang & Luu, Khai Duc & Nguyen, Danh Ngọc & Bui, Thanh Xuan & Van, Sang Nguyen & Nguyen, Ky Tran, 2022. "Effects of Land Quality on Land Use: Farm-level Panel-data Evidence from Viet Nam," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 14(4), December.

    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. Markussen, Thomas & Ngo, Quang-Thanh, 2019. "Economic and non-economic returns to communist party membership in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 370-384.
    2. Deng, Weiguang & Li, Xue & Zhang, Junsen, 2023. "Marriage, gender, and premiums from cadre parents," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Li, Hongbin & Meng, Lingsheng & Shi, Xinzheng & Wu, Binzhen, 2012. "Does having a cadre parent pay? Evidence from the first job offers of Chinese college graduates," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 513-520.
    4. Jin, Yanhong & Fan, Maoyong & Cheng, Mingwang & Shi, Qinghua, 2014. "The economic gains of cadre status in rural China: Investigating effects and mechanisms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 185-200.
    5. Trinh, Trong-Anh & Feeny, Simon & Posso, Alberto, 2022. "Political connections and post-disaster assistance in rural Vietnam," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Park, SeHyun, 2023. "Profitability of politically corrupt firms: Evidence from Romania," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    7. Liwen Chen & Bobby Chung & Guanghua Wang, 2021. "Exposure to Socially Influential Peer Parents: Evidence from Cadre Parents in China," Working Papers 2021-052, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    8. Zhi Li & Hai Zhong, 2017. "The impact of higher education expansion on intergenerational mobility," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 25(4), pages 575-591, October.
    9. Chen, Liwen & Chung, Bobby W. & Wang, Guanghua, 2023. "Exposure to socially influential peer parents: Evidence from cadre parents in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. He, Lerong & Wan, Hong & Zhou, Xin, 2014. "How are political connections valued in China? Evidence from market reaction to CEO succession," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 141-152.
    11. Masami Imai, 2006. "Mixing Family Business with Politics in Thailand," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 241-256, September.
    12. Blum, Matthias & de Bromhead, Alan, 2019. "Rise and fall in the Third Reich: Social advancement and Nazi membership," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    13. Hongbin Li & PakWai Liu & Junsen Zhang & Ning Ma, 2007. "Economic Returns to Communist Party Membership: Evidence From Urban Chinese Twins," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(523), pages 1504-1520, October.
    14. Habib, Ahsan & Muhammadi, Abdul Haris & Jiang, Haiyan, 2017. "Political connections, related party transactions, and auditor choice: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19.
    15. Yu Ri KIM & TODO Yasuyuki, 2019. "Are Politically Connected Firms More Likely to Export?," Discussion papers 19049, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    16. Xie, Rui & Zhang, Jiahuan & Tang, Chuan, 2023. "Political connection and water pollution: New evidence from Chinese listed firms," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    17. Feng Liu & Hui Lin & Huiying Wu, 2018. "Political Connections and Firm Value in China: An Event Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 551-571, October.
    18. Hongbin Li & Lingsheng Meng & Junsen Zhang, 2005. "Why Do Entrepreneurs Enter Politics?," Discussion Papers 00009, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics.
    19. Tingqiu Cao & Xianhang Qian, 2021. "Political Capital and Household Income: Evidence from Twenty-Four Transition Countries," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 151-165, March.
    20. Ren, Haohan & Zhao, Xiaofeng, 2020. "Anticorruption, political connections, and corporate cash policy: Evidence from politician downfalls in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Communist; Income; Credit; Subject well-being; Viet Nam;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • P26 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Property Rights

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2018-46. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.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.