Did a successful fight against COVID-19 come at a cost? Impacts of the pandemic on employment outcomes in Vietnam

Hai-Anh Dang (), Cuong Nguyen and Calogero Carletto

World Development, 2023, vol. 161, issue C

Abstract: Despite its low middle-income status, Vietnam has been widely praised for its success in the fight against early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a low mortality rate of approximately 100 deaths out of a population of less than 100 million by the end of 2020. We add to the emerging literature on COVID-19 effects on the labor market for poorer countries by analyzing rich individual-level data from Vietnam’s Labor Force Surveys spanning 2015 to 2020. We find post-pandemic increases in unemployment and temporary layoff rates alongside decreases in employment quality. Monthly wages declined even as the proportion of workers receiving below-minimum wages substantially increased, contributing to sharply rising wage inequality. Our findings suggest that more resources should be allocated to protect vulnerable workers, especially as the pandemic continues to cause increasingly severe damage to the global economy.

Keywords: COVID-19; Employment; Wage inequality; Differences-in-differences; RDD; Vietnam (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 I30 J21 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Did a Successful Fight against COVID-19 Come at a Cost? Impacts of the Pandemic on Employment Outcomes in Vietnam (2022)
Working Paper: Did a Successful Fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic Come at a Cost? Impacts of the Outbreak on Employment Outcomes in Vietnam (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:161:y:2023:i:c:s0305750x22003199

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106129

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