Globalization, industrialization, and labor markets in Vietnam

Angie Ngoc Tran and Irene Nørlund

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 2015, vol. 20, issue 1, 143-163

Abstract: This paper investigates the dilemmas of reaching the Vietnamese goal of ‘civilized and equitable’ society expressed from central planning towards a ‘socialist market economy under state guidance’ with deeper integration into the global capitalist system, and their impacts on the labor markets. Using long-run statistical data, historical contexts and industrial policies, and fieldwork interviews (from 1980s to 2014), we focus on two important labor-intensive, export-based industries: the long-established textile/garment industry and the emerging electronics industry, which surpassed textile exports in 2013. Evidence shows that the ‘high road’ to industrialization model – with domestic linkages and skills upgrading – does not accompany growth in exports, as low-skilled assembly, mostly young female workers join the labor force with non-liveable wages and substandard working conditions. These two case studies delve into different stages of industrial policy, which is more defined in the textile/garment case and underdeveloped in the electronics case.

Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2014.974343 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:20:y:2015:i:1:p:143-163

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjap20

DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2014.974343

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy is currently edited by Leong Liew

More articles in Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().