Household enterprises in Vietnam: survival, growth, and living standards

Wim Vijverberg and Jonathan Haughton

No 2773, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: In Vietnam almost a quarter of adults worked in nonfarm household enterprises in 1998. Based on household panel data from the Vietnam Living Standards Surveys of 1993 and 1998, the authors find some evidence that operating an enterprise leads to greater affluence. The data show that nonfarm household enterprises are most likely to be operated by urban households, by those with moderately good education, and by the children of proprietors. The authors were able to construct a panel of nonfarm household enterprises; 39 percent of enterprises operating in 1993 were still in business in 1998. Those in the (more affluent) south of the country were less likely to survive, as were smaller and younger businesses. A pattern emerges from the data. In poor areas the lack of education, credit, and effective demand limits the development of nonfarm household enterprises. In rich areas there is the attraction of wage labor. Nonfarm household enterprises are thus most important in the period of transition, when agriculture is declining in importance but before the formal sector becomes established. The authors expect these enterprises to continue to play a modest supporting role in fostering economic growth in Vietnam.

Keywords: Public Health Promotion; Housing&Human Habitats; Banks&Banking Reform; Municipal Financial Management; Microfinance; Banks&Banking Reform; Municipal Financial Management; Small and Medium Size Enterprises; Private Participation in Infrastructure; Microfinance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-02-28
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... d/PDF/multi0page.pdf (application/pdf)

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:wbk:wbrwps:2773

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().