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Abstract:
Vietnam's gains in poverty reduction between 1992 and 1998 were striking, and the country's impressive growth has been fairly broad-based. Households that have benefited most are well-educated, urban, white-collar households, while agricultural workers, ethnic minorities, and those residing in poorer regions have progressed least.

Glewwe, Gragnolati, and Zaman assess the extent to which Vietnam's rapid economic growth in the 1990s was accompanied by reductions in poverty. They also investigate factors that contribute to certain households benefiting more than others. Using information from two household surveys, the Vietnam Living Standards Surveys (VNLSS) for 1992-93 and 1997-98, they show that Vietnam's gains in poverty reduction were striking during this period and that the country's impressive growth has been fairly broad-based.

After discussing descriptive statistics for both years, the authors examine factors contributing to poverty reduction using both simple decomposition analysis and a multinomial logit model. The results show that:

Returns to education increased significantly during this period, particularly for higher levels of education.

Location significantly affected a household's probability of escaping poverty during this period. Urban households enjoyed a greater reduction in poverty than did rural households, and households residing in the Red River Delta and the southeast were also better able to take advantage of new opportunities.

White-collar households benefited most, and agricultural laborers the least.

However, Vietnam cannot afford to be complacent, as nearly half its rural population lives below the poverty line, poverty rates among ethnic minorities remain very high, and natural calamities are a serious impediment to poverty reduction.

This paper - a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the dynamics of poverty.

Abstract:
Vietnam's high economic growth in the 1990s led to sharp reductions in poverty, yet over the same time period inequality increased. This increased inequality may be less worrisome if Vietnamese households experience a high degree of income mobility over time. This is because high mobility implies that the long-run distribution of income is more equally distributed than the short-run distribution, since some individuals or households are poor in some years, while others are poor in other years.

Glewwe and Nguyen examine economic mobility in Vietnam using recent household survey panel data. The problem of measurement error in the income variable, which exaggerates the degree of economic mobility, is directly addressed. Correcting for measurement error dramatically changes the results. At least one half of measured mobility is because of measurement error.

This paper - a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study household welfare and poverty reduction in Vietnam.

Abstract:
This paper compares retrospective and prospective analyses of the effect of flip charts on test scores in rural Kenyan schools. Retrospective estimates that focus on subjects for which flip charts are used suggest that flip charts raise test scores by up to 20 percent of a standard deviation. Controlling for other educational inputs does not reduce this estimate. In contrast, prospective estimators based on a study of 178 schools, half of which were randomly selected to receive charts, provide no evidence that flip charts increase test scores. One interpretation is that the retrospective results were subject to omitted variable bias despite the inclusion of control variables. If the direction of omitted variable bias were similar in other retrospective analyses of educational inputs in developing countries, the effects of inputs may be even more modest than retrospective studies suggest. Bias appears to be reduced by a differences-in-differences estimator that examines the impact of flip charts on the relative performance of students in flip chart and other subjects across schools with and without flip charts, but it is not clear that this approach is applicable more generally.

Abstract:
A randomized evaluation suggests that a program which provided official textbooks to randomly selected rural Kenyan primary schools did not increase test scores for the average student. In contrast, the previous literature suggests that textbook provision has a large impact on test scores. Disaggregating the results by students? Initial academic achievement suggests a potential explanation for the lack of an overall impact. Textbooks increased scores for students with high initial academic achievement and increased the probability that the students who had made it to the selective final year of primary school would go on to secondary school. However, students with weaker academic backgrounds did not benefit from the textbooks. Many pupils could not read the textbooks, which are written in English, most students? third language. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the Kenyan education system and curricular materials are oriented to the academically strongest students rather than to typical students. More generally, many students may be left behind in societies that combine 1) a centralized, unified education system; 2) the heterogeneity in student preparation associated with rapid expansion of education; and 3) disproportionate elite power.

Abstract:
Computers were provided to randomly selected districts participating in a household survey in Vietnam to assess the impact on data quality of entering data within a day or two of completing the interview rather than several weeks later in the provincial capital. Provision of computers had no significant effect on the observed distribution of household expenditures and thus no effect on measured poverty. Provision of computers reduced the mean number of errors per household by 5-23 percent, depending on the type of error. Given the already low rate of errors in the survey, however, the goal of increasing the precision of the estimated mean of a typical variable can be achieved at a much lower cost by slightly increasing the sample size. Provision of additional computers did substantially reduce the time interviewers spent adding up and checking the data in the field, with the value of the time saved close to the cost of purchasing desktop computers.

C81, C93, C42, I32, O15

Abstract:
The introduction of the household responsibility system in the early 1980s and market liberalizing reforms are generally credited with the rapid growth enjoyed by China's rural sector. This growth has not been without some cost however. Over the last two decades, inequality appears to have increased appreciably in the countryside. Estimates suggest that the inequality as measured by the Gini has increased from less than 0.20 to 0.35 over this period. Much of the focus in the literature has been on the role of growing regional disparities in rural incomes caused by differential rates of growth in the TVE sector. Much less attention has been given to emerging differences within localities, and its contribution to overall inequality during transition. Recent calculations (Benjamin and Brandt, AEA Proceedings, 1999) suggest, however, that nearly three-quarters of the inequality in the rural sector are the product of intra- (as opposed to inter-) village differences in income. Our objective in this paper is to examine the emerging inter-household income differentials at the village level. In light of the growing market development in the countryside and the relaxation of restrictions on mobility, we want to analyze how emerging markets and institutions have interacted with household endowments and demographic processes to affect the distribution of income at this level. We are especially interested in the effect that human capital accumulation and differences in the rate of return to human capital across localities have had on intra-local inequality. We are also interested in the "indirect" effect that market development and growth has had on inequality through its effect on household organization. Over the last fifteen years, we observe a marked increase in the percentage of nuclear households, and a tendency for kids to live on their own once they become adults. To address these questions, we draw on two unique data sets. The first is a detailed household level data set that was collected by two of the authors in collaboration with Chinese colleagues in Hebei and Liaoning provinces in 1995. Altogether, 780 households in 30 villages in six counties in two provinces were surveyed. We also draw on for comparison household level data collected as part of the CHNS (Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey). These data extend to over 4000 households in 6 provinces, and have the added feature of being in the form of a panel (1989, 1991, 1993). This paper will contribute to our knowledge of inequality in rural China and to the impact of economic transition on inequality more generally.