Who Suffers the Penalty? A Panel Data Analysis of Earnings Gaps in Vietnam

Huu Chi Nguyen (), Christophe Nordman and François Roubaud
Additional contact information
Huu Chi Nguyen: University of Paris 13

No 7149, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In spite of its predominant economic weight in developing countries, little is known about the informal sector earnings structure compared to that of the formal sector. Taking advantage of the VHLSS dataset in Vietnam, in particular its three wave panel data (2002, 2004, 2006), we assess the magnitude of various formal-informal earnings gaps while addressing heterogeneity at three different levels: the worker, the job (wage employment vs. self-employment) and the earnings distribution. We estimate fixed effects and quantile regressions to control for unobserved individual characteristics. Our results suggest that the informal sector earnings gap highly depends on the workers' job status and on their relative position in the earnings distribution. Penalties may in some cases turn into premiums. By comparing our results with studies in other developing countries, we draw conclusions highlighting the Vietnam's labour market specificity.

Keywords: transition matrix; earnings gap; informal employment; panel data; Vietnam (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J23 J24 J31 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-iue, nep-lma and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (58)

Published - published in: Journal of Development Studies, 2013, 49 (12), 1694-1710

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp7149.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Who Suffers the Penalty?: A Panel Data Analysis of Earnings Gaps in Vietnam (2013)
Working Paper: Who Suffers the Penalty? A Panel Data Analysis of Earnings Gaps in Vietnam (2013)
Working Paper: Who Suffers the Penalty? A Panel Data Analysis of Earnings Gaps in Vietnam (2011)
Working Paper: Who Suffers the Penalty? A Panel Data Analysis of Earnings Gaps in Vietnam (2011)
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:iza:izadps:dp7149

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().