 Understanding Communist Transition: Property Rights in Ho Chi Minh City in the Late 1990sMartin Gainsborough Post-Communist Economies, 2002, vol. 14, issue 2, 227-243 Abstract: In the absence of secure private property rights, neo-classical political economy would have expected China and Vietnam to perform badly. However, both economies have recorded rapid growth in recent decades. This article attempts to explain this through an analysis of the property rights regime in state enterprises in Vietnam's second city and commercial centre, Ho Chi Minh City. It argues that by the late 1990s the property regime in many firms in the city had evolved so far that they had been effectively privatised. Enforcement of these private property rights rested not on the rule of law but on the ability of a company's real owners to resist outside encroachment. This in turn had to do with the relative strength of clientelist interests located at different levels of the party-state. Although not perfect, property rights were on this basis sufficiently clear and enforceable for economic growth to occur. The argument is illustrated with two case studies which offer rich insights into the real nature of property under a reforming state socialist regime. Date: 2002 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:pocoec:v:14:y:2002:i:2:p:227-243 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/14631370220139936 Access Statistics for this article Post-Communist Economies is currently edited by Roger Clarke More articles in Post-Communist Economies from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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