Structural and Rural Transformations and Poverty Reduction in Developing Asian Economies: An International Comparison Among China, the Philippines, and Vietnam

Qiu Chen, Jikun Huang, Mercedita A. Sombilla and Trang Truong
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Qiu Chen: School of Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Mercedita A. Sombilla: Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), Los Baños 4031, Laguna, Philippines

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-26

Abstract: In order to contribute to the body of knowledge on sustainable poverty reduction by exploring the relationship between rural and structural transformations and rural poverty incidence in Asian developing countries, this paper selected China, the Philippines, and Vietnam as case studies. Based on a comparison with the provincial data from those three countries, both the graphic and regression analysis suggest that structural and rural transformations matter in rural poverty reduction in these three countries. There is strong evidence showing that raising the share of non-agricultural GDP and the share of rural off-farm employment significantly contributes to rural poverty reduction in all three countries. More importantly, with the expansion of the non-farm sectors in both urban and rural areas, high-value agricultural share has a statistically significant and negative correlation with rural poverty in China and Vietnam over time, while such a negative correlation is much weaker or even does not exist in the Philippines. This paper further concludes with several implications for policymakers to promote inclusive structural and rural transformations.

Keywords: structural transformation; rural transformation; poverty reduction; developing Asian economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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