Product Market Integration and Household Labor Supply in a Poor Economy: Evidence from Vietnam

LITERATURE REVIEW ON LABOR MARKET IN VIETNAM

PhD. Pham Thi Lan Huong

MA. Tran Binh Minh

Introduction

Human capital is one of the important factors affecting the success or failure of development. The government of Vietnam, since its renovation (Doi Moi), has made great efforts to improve the labor market and its conditions to meet the requirement of economic progress and integration. The Vietnam’s WTO accession at the beginning of 2007 has brought advantages for Vietnam as it has been abundant of labor with young labor force and moderate educational background, especially with cheap price of labour. However, the most challenges that Vietnamese labourers are now facing is low professional skills and low consciousness of workers with respect to legal conformity.

The Government of Vietnam always recognizes the importance of labor and employment in maintaining high and sustainable growth so that to raise welfare and living standards of people, as well as to reduce poverty. Therefore, in its Five-year Socio-Economic Development Plan 2006-2010, the targets for human resource development was set, including creation of more than 8 million jobs, urban unemployment rate of lower than 5 percent, and the proportion of trained labour reaching to 40 percent of the labour forces. State investment and social mobilization are prioritized to job creation and to improve the quality and efficiency of labour force. Attention should be given to job creation and vocational training for young people. (SRV, 2006)

The purpose of this paper is therefore to reviewing existing studies on the labor market in Vietnam for identifying the gap for further studies in the coming years. Some obvious findings while reviewing literature on the labor market in Vietnam can be made as follows:

 Source of data: international researches rely on the household surveys, mostly in the period of 1992-2004, whereas domestic researches rely on Labour and Employment Survey done by the MOLISA.  Vietnamese researches is more focused on determinants of labour, migration of labour, and forecasting on the labour market in Vietnam while international researches (within the scope of this paper) seem to touch upon more various aspects of the labour market.

1. International researches

In the paper of “Product market integration and household labor supply in a poor economy: Evidence from Vietnam”, Edmonds and Pavcnik study the labor supply responses of children, young adults, and adults to changes in rice prices following the relaxation of the rice export quota and internal restrictions on trade. Because labor supply responses might differ across genders, they also focus on whether within each of the above categories the labor supplies of males and females react differentially to rice price changes. Their empirical work uses household survey data from the Vietnam Living Standards Survey (VLSS), which is designed to be nationally representative and cross-sectional household surveys. The VLSS is used because it spans the period of the rice market liberalization so that they can examine price changes through a total sample of 3,500 households in rural communities. By using this survey, they are enable to consider the labor supply (participation and time spent) in various categories of work, including wage work (i.e. work outside the household in either agriculture or non-agricultural activities), market work within the household (i.e. in either agriculture or non-farm business), and household production (i.e., collecting wood and water, chores, home repair and maintenance, etc.). They find that higher rice prices are associated with lower participation in wage work by boys, girls, and young adults, and lower participation in household production by adults. Moreover, higher rice prices are associated with less time devoted to household production for all age groups and adults devoting more hours to wage work. Finally, with the exception of children, labor market responses to changes in rice prices mostly do not differ statistically for males and females.

The Education Team of the World Bank believes that there is strong impact of a transitional economy on labor market, relatively on earnings and returns to education. In their working paper, Moock et al (1998) analyze returns to education, relying on earnings which are collected from the VLSS 1992-93. The results of their study show that, since there were almost no salary reforms at that time (salary reforms were introduced in 1993), on average, the rates of return are still low relatively low. In more details, average private rates of return to primary education and university education are higher than those to secondary and vocational education and returns to higher education are slightly higher for women than for men. Their methodology is applied as follows: Returns to schooling are estimated using a variety of methods. One method used is the human capital earnings function, where average private rate of return to one additional year of schooling, regardless of the level of schooling is determined by the number of years of schooling, years of experiences and hours worked per week. The earnings function method is used to estimate average private returns to different levels of schooling by converting the continuous years of schooling variable into a series of dummy variables representing the different levels of schooling (primary, secondary academic, secondary vocational and university education completion). A more complete method is the net earnings profile method, where detailed age-earnings profiles by level of education are used and the rate of return is computed as the discount rate that equates the stream of education benefits to the stream of educational costs. Of which, benefit of an educational investment is measured as the average additional earnings received by (for example) the graduates of secondary school, over and above the graduates of primary school. The cost of the investment comprises direct (all expenditures related to school attendance, and for society, the full resource costs of providing the educational service, including any subsidized costs not borne by the individual or the individual's family) and indirect costs (average earnings foregone as a result of the investment).

Pham Hung and Barry (2007a) uses mean and quantile regression analysis to investigate the gender pay gap for the wage employed in Vietnam over the period 1993 to 2002. The paper finds that the Doi moi reforms appear to have been associated with a sharp reduction in gender pay gap disparities for the wage employed. The average gender pay gap in this sector halved between 1993 and 2002 with most of the contraction evident by 1998. There has also been a narrowing in the gender pay gap at most selected points of the conditional wage distribution, an effect most pronounced at the top end of the conditional wage distribution. However, the decomposition analysis suggests that the treatment effect is relatively stable across the conditional wage distribution and little evidence of a ‘glass-ceiling’ effect is detected for Vietnamese women in the wage employment sector in any of the years examined.

Pham Hung and Barry (2007b) complements earlier studies on ethnic minority underdevelopment in Vietnam by empirically examining the ethnic wage gap in the Vietnamese labor market, using data from a large-scale household survey conducted in 2002. This paper seems to be the first to analyze the ethnic wage gap in the Vietnam labor market and one of the few to examine ethnic pay differentials at selected points of the conditional wage distribution using quantile regression analysis. It uses the ‘index number’ decomposition method suggested by Oaxaca (1973) to decompose the ethnic wage gap into treatment and endowment effects at both the mean and at selected quantiles of the conditional wage distribution. The results confirm the existence of an ethnic wage gap in the labor market, through this gap is found to be substantially narrower than the ethnic gap observed using household living standard measures for Vietnam. Decomposition results reveal that the ethnic wage gap is largely attributable to differentials in the returns to endowments, a finding invariant to whether the mean or selected quantiles of the conditional wage distribution is examined. However, in the absence of superior alternatives, the paper uses an ad hoc procedure to correct for selectivity into wage employment for the quantile regression models. In addition, due to data constraints in regard to earnings, the paper does not examine the ethnic wage gap for the self-employed.

Dr. Nolwen Henaff (1999) conducts survey in some provinces in Vietnam and concludes that regions which have better access to market, more develop and have better trading activities can facilitate people living in those regions to have better access to employment and higher income. Economic liberalization creates more jobs and higher income for people in general and people living in rural areas in particular. John Like Gallup (2002) uses the two VLSS 1992-93 and VLSS 1997-98 data to analyze the wage earning system and its impacts on the inequality. The paper uses households’ income function to determine income from wages and new methodology to determine the inequality. It finds that labor market in Vietnam has changed rapidly during the 90s, wage has increased by 10.5 percent/year in 1993-1998 period, more rapid than the average growth of income in general, working hours has also gone up, especially for rural areas, and the gradual increase of labor force to wage earners. He forecasts that wage inequality may change although it is assumed that the share of income from farm and non-farm activities in total income of households does not alter. During 1993-1998, this inequality has gone up by 9/4 percent and forecasted to increase 10 percent in every five year in the coming decades. The reason for this inequality comes from the reduction in agriculture share in the economic growth and poverty alleviation process. The maintaining of large rural population is one reason to increase inequality as well as to keep income of rural households at low level due to difficulties in moving labor out of this sector.

Patrick Belser (2000) seeks the answer for his question of whether Vietnam growth rate bases on labor intensive or not. The answer is yes. By using qualitative analysis through VLSS 1997-98 in comparison with VLSS 1992-93, the study finds that in 1992-93, employment in industrial sector, on average, has increased by 4 percent/year, lower than GDP growth rate. The main reason for this is that state- owned enterprises and foreign invested enterprises use capital-intensive technologies, meanwhile private sector is labor intensive, therefore, even though private sector has rapid growth rate, it accounts for small proportion. In the future, the paper concludes, Viet Nam will base on labor-intensive industries.

Prof. Dr. Papola et al (2005) finds the way to incorporate employment into Vietnam the development plan in 2006-2010 to propose policies and strategies that link employment with growth and poverty reduction. The study has evaluated the nature, different aspects and seriousness of unemployment in Vietnam, taking into consideration the unemployment, semi-unemployment and pro-poor employment. The paper also forecasts some employment issues that development plan in 2006-2010 may face, so that to propose policy implication of employment strategy, to determine high growth sectors to meet the demand of growth, job creation and poverty reduction. Although this is a research aiming at forecasting, it does not go deeply into forecasting for labor movement in agriculture and rural areas in the process of industrialization and modernization in Viet Nam

Dr. Pham Lan Huong et al (2004) argue that among major causes of poverty in Vietnam, lack of decent work is prominent. The factors leading to low possibilities for the poor to find decent work may include shortage of employment creation as consequences of government macro-economic or industrial and sectoral policies. Lacking employment opportunities also may arise unfavorable local conditions, low human capital of the poor themselves or other characteristics inherent to them. Therefore, their study, namely “Decent work strategies for poverty reduction in Vietnam”, attempts to explore three issues: economic growth, employment and poverty at the macro level. After reviewing economic policy reforms in light of their relevance or potential conflicts with the poverty reduction policies, the paper summarizes how government’s priorities for poverty reduction are reflected in the national development plan and government budget, and makes initial assessment of efficacy of poverty reduction. Poverty analysis is also examined through various dimensions such as regional, urban/rural, occupational, sectoral, gender and ethnicity by using the VLSS 1992-93, 97-98 and VHLSS 2001-02. Then, their study looks at opportunity creation for employment and incomes by using Labor and Employment Survey data for estimation of employment elasticity by sector and by region over the period 1996-2002. Various extents of employment such as under-employment and unemployment over time by are discussed in regional, urban/rural, sectoral, age, education and qualification attainment, and gender dimensions. Sectoral and occupational changes over time by these dimensions are also highlighted. The comprehensive analysis in the previous sections creates foundation for a frame of short- and long-term employment strategies, which is the main purpose of the paper.

Hoang Thanh Huong et al (2006), analyze the regional integration of labor markets in Vietnam. In particular they address three issues. Firstly, as earlier studies have not looked at regional wage convergence specifically, they want to find if there is regional convergence or divergence of wages in Vietnam. By using the household surveys in the period 1993-2004, they find that regional wage levels have been diverging during the period 1993-2004, although there is some convergence between 2002 and 2004. Secondly, the paper explains how much of the regional variation in wages can be seen through inter-regional differences in human capital, industrial structure and/or ownership, and whether the observed divergence in hourly wages across regions can be explained by regional changes in these factors. The analysis shows that regional wage gaps can increasingly be explained by regional differences in human capital, industrial structure and ownership. It is also found that even after controlling for changes in these factors, hourly wages are still diverging across regions in Vietnam and regional wage gaps with neighboring regions are converging, suggesting that there is local convergence but global divergence. Thirdly, the authors focus on the extent to which the labor markets for wage- and self-employment are integrated. They argue that most workers are self-employed and do not earn market wages but shadow wages. In principle, if the labor markets for wage- and self-employment are fully integrated, market and shadow wages should be equal, and an analysis of market wages suffices. If these markets are segmented (may be because of barriers to job mobility, lack of market information, and job discrimination) then market and shadow wages will differ. They therefore estimate regional shadow wages to provide a more comprehensive picture of labor market integration in Vietnam. They do find that shadow wages are significantly lower than market wages, confirming a lack of integration between wage- and self-employment and the existence of surplus labor in rural areas. However, shadow wages as a ratio of market wages have increased between 2002 and 2004 for the whole country, suggesting that the markets for wage and self-employment are increasingly becoming integrated in Vietnam. However, among the 10 regions, integration is the strongest in the South East and the Mekong River Delta, and the weakest in the North East, suggesting that the integration of markets for wage and self-employment is local. 2. Researches in Vietnamese

According to Le Xuan Ba (2006), there are two factors having impacts on labor structural shift in rural and agricultural sector, including push-factors and pull-factors. Push-factors are comprised of restriction in resources in agricultural development such as limited agricultural lands, high demand of cash consumption, potential risks in agricultural production. Pull-factors includes positive impacts of employment policies, encouragement of non-farm development, the attraction of non-farm income- generating activities as well as the improvement of employment possibilities for people living in the rural areas through educational raising, and more importantly, the establishment and development of rural enterprises. However, it is said in the study that the impacts of push-factors and pull-factors are different depending on each period. During the period of 1993-1997, push-factors are big motivations while in 2002-2004 pull-factors are more positive even though basically, push-factors are larger. Although policies of credit, poverty alleviation, employment creation for rural areas have been given high priorities and have significant impacts, they are not much meaningful, in reality, in facilitating labor movement to non-farm sector. The main reason is that application of policies was inflexible, meanwhile demand and movement factors in each region and each group were very much different. To conclude, the paper said that internal factors of laborers were important.

Methodologies used in the study was the combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative description to have better picture of determinants of labor structural shift in rural areas. To understand factors that have impacts on decision of labor movement from farming to non-farming activities, the study used neo-classical household economic model to develop the possibility function of moving from farming to non- farm sector. The similar model was also applied to analyze moving factors of non- farm self-employment and employment. The strength of this study lay under the deep analysis and evaluation of positive and negative factors of labor movements within structural economic sector in rural areas as well as the labor movement in rural-urban sector.

Vu Thi Kim Mao (2007) in her research of “Current situation and solutions on labor and employment issues in agriculture and rural areas” conducted a survey in 14 provinces, representing for 8 geographical-economic regions in the nation wide. A total of 1,000 households, 635 laborers, 70 enterprises (representing for employers) and 42 other organizations and unions were deeply interviewed. Other secondary data of both quantity and quality of labor and employment was also collected. The study set out some following hypotheses: (i) Agricultural labors have tendency of moving to non-farm agricultural activities; (ii) Agricultural labors have lower income than those in non-farm agricultural sector; (iii) There are more chance of employments for labors in rural and agricultural sector; (iv) There are different jobs in different regions and economic sectors; (v) Labors in rural and agricultural sectors lack of facilitation for accessing to employment chances; (vi) Unskilled and low-education labors have less chance of employment; and (vii) Young labors have the tendency of seeking jobs in industrial and services sectors. In supporting for these above-mentioned hypotheses and taking advantage of surveyed data, the study used both descriptive analysis and regression approaches to have a panorama of labor and employment issues as well as analyzing the ability of household labors, the surplus of household labors, explaining different types of incomes in rural households. Index and scaling techniques were also used to assess the challenges, difficulties, perspectives and expectation of labor and rural households in employment creation programs. This study seems to be one of the most comprehensive researches on labor and employment in agriculture and rural areas.

Than Van Lien (1997) selected Hanoi and Hue city to study the rural-urban labor movement. About 800 migrant labors were surveyed and one main finding of the study was that economic factors are main reason for free migrant to urban areas. The booming of free migrant was resulted from reforms in citizen, permanent registration, omission of strict permanent registration control, and impacts of community factors. Migrant labor creates both positiveness and negativeness for socio-economic development of both migrating and immigrating regions in terms of labor, employment and other social issues. Rural-urban migrant labor is considered as law of development due to unequal development.

The strength of this study was that it identified main determinants of rural-urban migrant labors, the impacts of “push factors” and “pull factors” and policy recommendations contributing to the limitation of negative impacts and upholding positive impacts of free migrant on the socio-economic development of both rural and urban areas. However, the study did not put labor migrants in comprehensive situation of labor and labor structural shift of rural areas in order to have broader and more general picture and longer term policies for rural employment.

Nguyen Van Tai (1998), to the light of rural and urban labour movement, selected free migrants to Ho Chi Minh City as his research subject on the survey of about 600 migrant labors. The result of this paper showed that free migrants brought positive impacts to the development of the city, including abundant and diversified labor supply, dealing with the jobs which city labor did not want to do, contribution to a dynamic way of living, creating competitiveness in the labor market, and diversification of urban culture. However, there are some negative impacts of free labor migrants on the development of the City such as increasing of population and unemployment, creating slum areas and social evils, putting pressure on the infrastructure network. Moreover, free labor migrant also have both negative and positive impacts on their home areas. Positive impacts include increasing income for their relatives, having professional and skill labor if they come back to their home areas, reducing pressure on limited agricultural lands. Negative impacts of free labor migrants can be named as lack of labor for rural areas, changes in gender structure, influencing on spiritual aspects, damaging family emotions and the displacement of cultural environment in rural areas. The strengths of this study is to analyze deeply the causes and effects of free migrants to Ho Chi Minh City, which have not yet been any focus of previous studies and to clarify the characteristics of migrant labors and its impacts on the migrating and immigrating areas through the survey of 600 laborers. However, it only focuses on the topic of migrant labors within one city in specifically, not touching on labor and labor structure movement in the context of rural industrialization in general.

Dr. Do Van Hoa (1999) studied the migrants to and its impacts on Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Dak Lak through the analysis of 151 out of 400 migrant-related projects, using multiple-variables analysis approach. Main findings included (i) macroeconomic policies had strong impacts on migration rather than direct migrant policies and (ii) proposal on changing perspective of migration and (iii) the necessity to direct migrant flows in accordant with socio-economic development in the coming time. It was also forecasted in the research that the tendency of rural-urban migration in the coming years could be replaced by the rural-urban migration. Rural-urban migration had close linkage with industrialization and modernization process, of which three major economic zones were Northern, South East and Central Coastal areas. These were qualitative forecasts which did not specify the forecast of labor movement in the industrialization-modernization process in rural areas.

Ha Thi Phuong Tien (2000) made her research on migrant labor with respect to gender. A total of 60 migrant women and 30 migrant men (control group) in three cities Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City was involved in deep interview. Another survey in the three communes where were most of immigrant women to the three above mentioned cities were conducted by using Participatory Rural Assessment to have an overview of their daily lives; to analyze causes and effects on their families and themselves, and their integration into urban life; to analyze negative effects of socio-economic development of the cities where they immigrated as well as gender issues. The strength of this study was rural-urban migrant women. However, due to the specific research topic, its impacts, tendency and movement was independently referred, not in broad context of agricultural and rural economic structure and labor movement.

Le Hong Thai (2002) has forecasted that labor in rural farming sector would be around 15-17 billion, whilst that of rural non-farm would increase from 13.4 million in 2000 to 21.2 million people in 2010. Data supporting for this forecast were taken from the forecast of Development and Strategy Institute in combination with the calculation of farming jobs, land for agricultural purpose, current labor norms, as well as demand of labor structure shift in modernization process (for the calculation of labor demand in agriculture) and data of unit investment for one non-farm labor (for the forecast of labor and labor structure to 2010 and 2020). Main contribution of study was some forecasts on labor and labor structure in agriculture to 2010, which was the basic for proposing some policies to improve labor and employment in agriculture in the coming years. Although some big forecast and the movement trend of labor structure were taken into consideration, the study used secondary data, mostly descriptive statistics, and forecasts by other institutions. It might have some inconsistency because of different methodology, different objectives and economic norms, leading to a descriptive analysis, rather than forecast, of demand of labor in farm and non-farm sector to 2010.

In the same theme of labour forecast, Dr. Le Quoc Doanh (2004) forecasts the shift in economic structure in rural and agricultural sector based on Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). He uses macroeconomic structure and dynamic multi-market models to simulate impacts on agricultural products in accordance with different scenarios of policy commitments in economic integration and with the condition of shifting rural, agricultural economic structure in Viet Nam. In spite of some big forecasts on shifting rural, agricultural economic structure to 2020, the study does not focus on analyzing and forecasting one single factor market – labor structure in agriculture and rural areas in the coming times.

Pham Lan Huong (2005) summarizes labor and employment issues in the recent 15 years, highlighting underemployment basing on different criteria, deducing the tendency of rural labor, which accounted for ¾ of total labor in the whole country. This report also give out some forecasts of number of rural labors in the period of 2006-2010 based on the elasticity of employment to growth and proposed policies on the two sides, demand and supply of rural labors. The strength of this study is to give out an overview of rural labor using rapid forecast approach. Some macroeconomic policies are also given, however, this is a small report, and main picture forecast to 2010 is also drawn. The forecast of this study mainly focuses on the demand side, not much on the supply side of labor. Inter-sectoral impacts of demand and supply of rural labor in the whole economy is also not mentioned in this report.

The Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) (2006) conduct a research on Developing an Employment Strategy in Vietnam in the period of 2005-2015 basing on scenarios in the context of Vietnam’s deep integration into the region and world. The main focus of this study is as follow: (i) constructing a model for forecasting labor, employment in Vietnam in 2005-2015 with population, economic, social variables and other resources; (ii) forecasting labor and employment in Vietnam during 2005-2015 on the collected data; and (iii) developing a comprehensive forecast of employment strategy and implementing solutions. This study contributes to the development of national strategy on employment to 2015 with big balance of labor supply-demand.

Under the same theme of Vietnamese labour on its regional and global integration, Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong et al (2006) make an impact assessment of labor market on the socio-economic development in the period 2001-2005 and forecast the impact tendency in 2006-2010. Besides the theoretical framework of characteristics of labor market, its criteria of operation and measurements on the efficiency of labour market, the main part of the study is to evaluate its impacts on socio-economic development in Vietnam in 2001-2005. The efficiency of labour supply is reflected through unemployment rate and the proportion of working time used by workers. Although the unemployment rate is on its decrease and acceptable within the range of 4-5 percent, Vietnam has not made use of its human resource. In the rural market, in spite of the low unemployment rate, the proportion of working time used by workers is not high, showing the fact that urban market is more attractive to workers than rural market. The research team, basing on data of annual Labour and Employment Surveys done by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, analyze the impacts of labour market on socio-economic development on the following aspects: (i) on economic growth; (ii) on increasing productivity; (iii) changes in distribution linkages, with different prices in different markets; (iv) changing economic structure and labour structure; (v) Employment growth; (vi) the unequal competition and segmentation of labour market leading to labour movement; (vii) the impacts of mismatch in working relation and organization on strikes and unfavorable environment on economic loss; (viii) the earning gap due to segmented labour market; and (ix) its impacts on poverty reduction. On these analyses, the study uses regression model to forecast some factors of labour market and its impacts on GDP growth. Results from the regression model shows that GDP growth ranges from 7.8 percent to 12.01 percent if there is not much variation in the economy. This is really high growth rate for a developing country like Vietnam. Hence, according to policy implication of the study, labour market should operate efficiently so that to create more jobs with higher quality, to expand the scope of formal labour market, to increase the qualification of human resource and to enhance the proportion of trained labourers.

Le Xuan Ba and associates in their national research on the topic of “Forecasting the movement of labor structure in agriculture and rural sectors and solutions for job creation in the industrialization, modernization and urbanization in Vietnam” (ongoing project) focus on some following issues:

- The theoretical framework of labor movement and labor market, including characteristics of rural labors supply and demand of labor market, unemployment, labor market segmentation, and the relation between labor movement with industrialization, modernization and urbanization;

- International experiences on the job creation for rural areas, especially for transitional economies, and experiences on shifting labor structure from farm to non-farm and from rural to urban;

- Analysis of current situation of labor and employment in agriculture and rural areas in some recent years, focusing on current situation of job creation in non-farm, movement of labor from farm to non-farm, and movement of labor in the same region or different regions in the whole country;

- Forecasting the movement of labor structure in the industrialization, modernization and urbanization process to 2020, with focus on forecast of labor movement from farm to non-farm activities, labor movement by sectors, and the requirements of education and training to 2020; and

- Proposing some solutions on improving the movement of labor structure in agriculture and rural areas and some solution of job creation in the industrialization, modernization and urbanization process.

The ILSSA, in 2008, has done some studies related to labour market in order to fill the gap of research. One research focus on constructing mechanism, policies and solutions to develop labour market with the objective of solving shortcomings of state administration emerging in some recent years when Vietnam’s fully accession to be WTO member and its deep integration into regional and global economy. The other study is on application of Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) of the International Labour Organization to analyze the labour market in Vietnam. The KILM contains a core set of 20 labour market indicators categorized by 8 groups of labor force participation; employment; unemployment, underemployment and inactivity indicators; qualification of labour force; wages; productivity; labour movement and poverty and income distribution. The purpose of this study is to construct relevant and applicable indicators for labour market in Vietnam and to analyze the current situation of labour market in Vietnam by using these indicators. These two studies are ongoing process and expected to finalize by early 2009. Reference

In English

1. Edmonds, E., and Pavcnik, N., 2004, Product Market Integration and Household Labor Supply in a Poor Economy: Evidence from Vietnam, Dartmouth College and NBER.

2. Moock, P. R., Patrinos, H. A., and Venkataraman, M., 1998, Education and Earnings in a Transition Economy (Vietnam), Policy Research Working Paper, The World Bank, May.

3. Pham Hung and Barry, R., 2007a, The Gender Pay Gap in Vietnam, 1993- 2002: A Quintile Regression Approach, Department of Economics, University of Sussex, September.

4. Pham Hung and Barry, R., 2007b, Ethnic Wage Inequality in Vietnam: Empirical Evidence from 2002, Department of Economics, University of Sussex, November.

5. Henaff, N. and Martin, J.Y., 1999, Labor and Human Resources Information System in Viet Nam, Hanoi, October.

6. Gallup, J. L., 2002, The Wage Labor Market and Inequality in Viet Nam in the 1990s, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2896, September.

7. Papola, Pham Lan Huong, Nguyen Thi Lan Huong and Ngo Xuan Quyet, 2005, Integrating Employment in Viet Nam’s Development Plan 2006-2010, Employment Strategy Department, International Labor Office, Geneva, October.

8. Pham Lan Huong, Dinh Hien Minh and Trinh Quang Long, 2004, Decent Work Strategies for Poverty Reduction in Vietnam, A paper prepared for International Labour Organization, Hanoi, April.

9. Belser, P., 2000, Viet Nam on the Road to Labor Intensive Growth, Policy Research Working Paper 2389, The World Bank, Washington DC.

10. Hoang Thanh Huong, Le Van Chon, Le Dang Trung and Remco Oostendorp, 2008, Regional Labor Market Integration, In: Nguyen Thang and Hansen, H. eds. Marke, Policy and Poverty Reduction in Vietnam, Vietnam Culture and Information Publising House, pp.30-58. Hanoi, Vietnam.

In Vietnamese

11. Le Hong Thai et al, 2002, Research on Labor and Employment in Rural Areas, Hanoi, December.

12. Than Van Lien et al, 1997, A Study of Push-factor to the Wave of Free Migration from Rural to Urban Areas in the Process of Economic Transform and Its Impacts on the Socio-economic Development of Urban and Rural Areas, Viet Nam – Netherlands Research Program, Hanoi, May.

13. Nguyen Van Tai et al, 1998, A Study of Current Situation, Push-factors and Other Issues Deriving from Free Migration on Socio-economic Development and Environment in Ho Chi Minh City in the Reform Process: Some Policy Implications, Viet Nam – Netherlands Research Program, Ho Chi Minh City.

14. Le Xuan Ba et al, 2006, Determinants of Labor Structure Movement in Rural Areas in Viet Nam, MISPA project, MARD, Hanoi.

15. Le Quoc Doanh, 2004, Theoretical Framework on the Shift of Economic Structure in Agriculture and Rural Areas in accordance with Industrialization and Modernization Process, National Research Project KC 07-17, Hanoi, December.

16. Do Van Hoa et al, 1999, Migration in Vietnam, VIE/95/004 Project, Hanoi

17. Ha Thi Phuong Tien et al, 2000, Free Female Labor Migration from Rural to Urban Areas, Hanoi.

18. Pham Lan Huong, 2005, Labor and Employment in Rural Areas and Policy Recommendations for 2006-2010, Report for IPSARD, MARD, Hanoi.

19. ILSSA, 2006, Developing Employment Strategy for Viet Nam in 2005-2015, Hanoi

20. Vu Thi Kim Mao, 2007, Current Situation and Solutions on Labor and Employment in Agriculture and Rural Areas, IPSARD, MARD, Hanoi.

21. Le Xuan Ba, ongoing, A Forecast on Labor Structure Movement in Agriculture and Rural Areas and Solutions on Employment Creation to Enhance the Industrialization, Modernization and Urbanization Process in Vietnam, National Research Project KX.02.01/06-10, Hanoi.

22. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong et al, 2007, Impact Assessment of Labour Market on Socio-Economic Development in 2001-2005 and Forecasting Impact Tendecy in 2006-2010, Ministerial Research Project CB 2006-01-01, Hanoi.