Poverty And Survival Prospects Of Vietnamese Children Under Doi Moi

Abstract: By international standards, and given its relatively low per capita income, Vietnam has achieved substantial reductions in, and low levels of, infant and under-five mortality. Wagstaff and Nguyen review existing evidence and provide new evidence on whether, under the economic liberalization program known as Doi Moi, this reduction in child mortality has been sustained. They conclude that it has, but that the gains have been concentrated among the better-off. As a result, socioeconomic inequalities in child survival are evident in Vietnam"a change from the early 1990s when none were apparent. The authors develop survival models to find the causes of this differential decline in child mortality, and conclude that a number of factors have been at work, including reductions among the poor (but not among the better-off) in coverage of health services and in women's educational attainment. They argue that if the experience of the late 1990s is a guide to the future, the lack of progress among the poor will jeopardize Vietnam's chances of achieving the international development goals for child mortality. The authors examine various policy scenarios, including expanding coverage of health services, water and sanitation, and find that such measures, while useful, will have only a limited effect on the mortality of poor children. They find that programs aimed at narrowing the gap between the poor and better-off may have large beneficial effects on the various determinants of child survival. This paper"a product of Public Services, Development Research Group"is part of a larger effort in the group to investigate the links between health and poverty. The authors may be contacted at awagstaff@@worldbank.org or nnga@@worldbank.org.

By international standards, and given its relatively low per capita income, Vietnam has achieved substantial reductions in, and low levels of, infant and under-five mortality. The authors review existing evidence and provide new evidence on whether, under the economic liberalization program known as Doi Moi, this reduction in child mortality has been sustained. They conclude that it has, but that the gains have been concentrated among the better-off. As a result, socioeconomic inequalities in child survival are evident in Vietnam-a change from the early 1990s when none were apparent. The authors develop survival models to find the causes of this differential decline in child mortality, and conclude that a number of factors have been at work, including reductions among the poor (but not among the better-off) in coverage of health services and in women's educational attainment. They argue that if the experience of the late 1990s is a guide to the future, the lack of progress among the poor will jeopardize Vietnam's chances of achieving the international development goals for child mortality. The authors examine various policy scenarios, including expanding coverage of health services, water and sanitation, and find that such measures, while useful, will have only a limited effect on the mortality of poor children. They find that programs aimed at narrowing the gap between the poor and better-off may have large beneficial effects on the various determinants of child survival.

With the adoption of new market-oriented policies, Vietnam has transformed itself from one of the world's poorest countries during the 1980s, into an economy with one of the highest growth rates during the 1990s. Using macroeconomic and household survey data, this publication examines a range of issues including: the causes of Vietnam's economic growth and future prospects; the impact on household welfare and poverty levels, school enrolment, child health and other socioeconomic outcomes; and the nature of poverty in Vietnam and the effectiveness of government policies for poverty reduction, drawing lessons for Vietnam and for other low-income developing countries.

This book reviews the experience of 14 countries with external liberalization and related policies, based on papers written by national authors following a common 0000oeconomic methodology. The methodology, the papers' main results, and policy implications are summarized in the introductory chapter. The book reports on a follow-on project to the country studies presented in Lance Taylor (ed.), External Liberalization, Economic Performance, and Social Policy, OUP, 2001. The new project represents a significant extension of the earlier work in that it focuses principally on formerly socialist European economies (Hungary, Poland, Russia), Asian economies (consistently growing China, India, Singapore, and Vietnam; the 1997-98 crisis victims Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand; and cyclically stagnant Philippines and Turkey). Brazil is also included as an important comparator. Macroeconomics has traditionally been less actively pursued in Asia and the transition economies than, say, in Latin America. The 1997-98 crisis awoke the Asians to the importance of macro, and the present book is in part a response to the development. A distinguishing feature of the book is the common methodology, which focuses on the mechanisms via which effective demand is generated and the interactions of labor productivity, employment growth, and income distribution. The country papers show clearly how trade and capital account liberalization along with changes in the real exchange rate affected demand, productivity, and employment at the country level. They also trace through shifts in the overall income distribution and the incidence of poverty. The authors of the papers bring a wealth of insight into their thick descriptions à la Clifford Geertz's famous Balinese cockfight about how diverse economies responded to rather similar reform packages and offer lessons about ongoing institutional change. They also suggest policy shifts that may help make economic performance better in the future than it has been in the past.

This volume brings together frontline research on the prospects for rapid economic development in South Asia by leading academics and public policy experts. It reviews recent macroeconomic performance in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and examines three emergent challenges for the Indian economy: devising a policy response to climate change, attaining the millennium development goals and restructuring state level finances. The book then analyzes financial sector reforms and development of information and communications technology (ICT) firms and privatization policy in India and the South Asian approach to free trade arrangements and multilateral trade. It studies issues related to foreign perceptions of South Asian development including governance and foreign direct investment flows into India and Nepal. Finally the book studies the impact of the structural composition of economic growth on poverty in India, the evolution of inequality in India and elements of a strategy for poverty reduction in South Asia.

Viet Nam has seen consistent rapid economic growth and impressive declines in poverty since it initiated its Doi Moi economic reforms in the late 1980s. Viet Nam has taken a selective, step-by-step approach to reform—an approach often criticised by proponents of the Washington Consensus. That this approach has been so successful has come as something of a surprise to much of the international community. Analysing closely aspects of Viet Nam’s reform process, enterprise development, income growth and poverty alleviation, Viet Nam: a transition tiger? argues that Viet Nam’s remarkable development is not readily explained by the more orthodox versions of the Washington Consensus. Successful policy is not built on mechanistic replication of some general reform blueprint, but on responding pragmatically to specific national circumstances. Government policy has had an impact on economic performance but economic experience has also guided the formulation of economic policy. Faced with increasingly complex economic conditions, Vietnamese policymakers will need to rely more than ever on their flexibility and pragmatism if Viet Nam’s remarkable economic performance is to be sustained.

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In Tours of Vietnam, Scott Laderman demonstrates how tourist literature has shaped Americans’ understanding of Vietnam and projections of United States power since the mid-twentieth century. Laderman analyzes portrayals of Vietnam’s land, history, culture, economy, and people in travel narratives, U.S. military guides, and tourist guidebooks, pamphlets, and brochures. Whether implying that Vietnamese women were in need of saving by “manly” American military power or celebrating the neoliberal reforms Vietnam implemented in the 1980s, ostensibly neutral guides have repeatedly represented events, particularly those related to the Vietnam War, in ways that favor the global ambitions of the United States. Tracing a history of ideological assertions embedded in travel discourse, Laderman analyzes the use of tourism in the Republic of Vietnam as a form of Cold War cultural diplomacy by a fledgling state that, according to one pamphlet published by the Vietnamese tourism authorities, was joining the “family of free nations.” He chronicles the evolution of the Defense Department pocket guides to Vietnam, the first of which, published in 1963, promoted military service in Southeast Asia by touting the exciting opportunities offered by Vietnam to sightsee, swim, hunt, and water-ski. Laderman points out that, despite historians’ ongoing and well-documented uncertainty about the facts of the 1968 “Hue Massacre” during the National Liberation Front’s occupation of the former imperial capital, the incident often appears in English-language guidebooks as a settled narrative of revolutionary Vietnamese atrocity. And turning to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, he notes that, while most contemporary accounts concede that the United States perpetrated gruesome acts of violence in Vietnam, many tourists and travel writers still dismiss the museum’s display of that record as little more than “propaganda.”

ÔThe Elgar Companion to Health Economics is a comprehensive and accessible look at the field, as seen by its leading figures.Õ Ð Joseph Newhouse, Harvard Medical School, US Acclaim for the first edition: ÔThis Companion is a timely addition. . . It contains 50 chapters, from 90 contributors around the world, on the topical and policy-relevant aspects of health economics. . . there is a balanced coverage of theoretical and empirical materials, and conceptual and practical issues. . . I have found the Companion very useful.Õ Ð Sukhan Jackson, Economic Analysis and Policy ÔThis encyclopedic work provides interested readers with an authoritative and comprehensive overview of many, if not all, of the current research issues in health economics. Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above.Õ Ð R.M. Mullner, Choice This comprehensive collection brings together more than 50 contributions from some of the most influential researchers in health economics. It authoritatively covers theoretical and empirical issues in health economics, with a balanced range of material on equity and efficiency in health care systems, health technology assessment and issues of concern for developing countries. This thoroughly revised second edition is expanded to include four new chapters, while all existing chapters have been extensively updated. The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition intends to take an audience of advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers to the current frontier of research by providing concise and readable introductions to key topics.