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The Impacts of Economic Growth and Governance on Migration: Evidence from Vietnam

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Abstract

We examine the effect of income level and governance quality on inter-province migration in Vietnam using a gravity model. Consistent with previous studies on migration, we find that people tend to move from low-income provinces to high-income ones. Among the income components, wage income is the most important in pushing and pulling migrants. Higher non-farm income also attracts more immigrants. The migration flow is also associated with the quality of governance and public administration. Low public services and administrative procedures tend to push people to emigrate, while better control of corruption and more transparency and accountability tend to pull immigrants.

Résumé

Nous examinons l’effet du niveau de revenu et de la qualité de la gouvernance sur la migration interprovinciale au Vietnam à l’aide d’un modèle de gravité. Tout comme les études antérieures sur la migration, nous constatons que les gens ont tendance à passer des provinces à faible revenu aux provinces à revenu élevé. Parmi les composantes du revenu, le revenu salarial exerce la force de répulsion-attraction (push and pull) la plus importante chez les migrants. Les revenus non agricoles plus élevés attirent aussi plus d’immigrants. Le flux migratoire est également associé à la qualité de la gouvernance et de l’administration publique. La faiblesse des services publics et des procédures administratives a tendance à pousser les gens à émigrer, tandis qu’un meilleur contrôle de la corruption et plus de transparence et de responsabilité ont tendance à attirer les immigrants.

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Fig. 1

Source Authors’ preparation

Fig. 2

Source Authors’ estimation from the 2009 VHPC and the 2014 IPHS

Fig. 3

Source Authors’ estimation from the 2014 IPHS

Fig. 4

Source Authors’ estimation from the 2010 and 2014 VHLSS

Fig. 5

Source Authors’ estimation from the 2011 and 2014 PAPI

Fig. 6

Source Authors’ estimation from the 2014 VHLSS and the 2014 PAPI

Fig. 7
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Acknowledgements

This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under Grant Number 502.01-2016.08. We would like to express our thanks to Raul Ramos (editor) and two anonymous reviewers from The European Journal of Development Research for their very useful comments on our study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Long Thanh Giang & Cuong Viet Nguyen

  2. TIMAS, Thang Long University, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Long Thanh Giang

  3. Institute of Theoretical and Applied Research (ITAR), Duy Tan University, Hanoi, 100000, Vietnam

    Cuong Viet Nguyen

  4. Faculty of Planning and Development, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Hoa Quynh Nguyen

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  1. Long Thanh Giang
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Correspondence to Cuong Viet Nguyen.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 6, 7 and 8.

Table 6 Public administration and governance by regions
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Table 7 Province fixed-effects regressions of migration (two-part model).
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Table 8 OLS regressions of migration on the PAPI index.
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Giang, L.T., Nguyen, C.V. & Nguyen, H.Q. The Impacts of Economic Growth and Governance on Migration: Evidence from Vietnam. Eur J Dev Res 32, 1195–1229 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-020-00262-3

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