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Ethnic Minorities in Northern Mountains of Vietnam: Employment, Poverty and Income

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Abstract

This study provides estimates of key socio-economic indicators reflecting employment, poverty, and welfare of ethnic minorities in Northern Mountains of Vietnam. The ethnic minorities in Northern Mountains have much lower assets and income than ethnic minorities in other regions. Their income is mainly from crops and livestock. Compared with Kinh/Hoa (ethnic majorities) and ethnic minorities in other regions, ethnic minorities in the study area have substantially lower income from wage and non-farm employment. By decomposing the income gap between the ethnic minorities in Northern Mountains and those in other region, this study provides the first evidence that the income gap between the two groups is mainly explained by the gap in wage and nonfarm incomes. Northern Mountain ethnic minorities spend less time on wage and nonfarm employment. Their non-farm income per working hours and farm income per working hours are substantially lower than those of other households.

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Fig. 1

Source: Authors’ estimation from VHLSSs 1993, 1998, and VHLSSs 2004, 2006

Fig. 2

Source: Authors’ preparation using poverty estimates from Nguyen (2012)

Fig. 3

Source: Authors’ estimation from the 2010 NMBS and the 2010 VHLSS

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Notes

  1. Chinese and Kinh tend to live in delta region and they have higher income and living standard than other groups. As a result, Kinh and Hoa are often grouped in one group in studies in Vietnam (e.g., Nguyen 2012; Van de Walle and Gunewardena 2001). We defined Kinh/Hoa groups as the ethnic majority group in the current study.

  2. The WB-GSO poverty line (the World Bank and General Statistical Office of Vietnam poverty line) (see more in World Bank 2012).

  3. Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions can have other expressions as follows:

    $$\Delta E\left[ {\ln (Y)} \right] \, = \left( {\bar{X}_{O} - \bar{X}_{E} } \right)\hat{\beta }_{O} + \left( {\hat{\beta }_{O} - \hat{\beta }_{E} } \right)\bar{X}_{E} + \left( {\hat{\alpha }{}_{O} - \hat{\alpha }{}_{E}} \right)$$
    $$\Delta E\left[ {\ln (Y)} \right] \, = \left( {\bar{X}_{O} - \bar{X}_{E} } \right)\hat{\beta }_{E} + \left( {\hat{\beta }_{O} - \hat{\beta }_{E} } \right)\bar{X}_{O} + \left( {\hat{\alpha }{}_{O} - \hat{\alpha }{}_{E}} \right)$$

    For a neutral selection of the coefficients of the differences, we use Eq. (4) in this study.

  4. 1 USD was equal to about 20.000 VND in 2010.

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Correspondence to Tuyen Quang Tran.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 10 and 11.

Table 10 Sample size by provinces of the 2010 NMBS.
Table 11 Sample size of the 2010 NMBS and 2010 VHLSS by ethnic minorities.

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Nguyen, C.V., Tran, T.Q. & Van Vu, H. Ethnic Minorities in Northern Mountains of Vietnam: Employment, Poverty and Income. Soc Indic Res 134, 93–115 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1413-3

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