The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam

We combine nationally representative household and labor force survey data from 1992 to 2016 to provide a detailed description of rural labor market evolution and how it relates to the structural transformation of rural Vietnam, especially within the agricultural sector. Our study adds to the emergi...

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Autores principales: Liu, Yanyan, Barrett, Christopher B., Pham, Trinh, Violette, William
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142568
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author Liu, Yanyan
Barrett, Christopher B.
Pham, Trinh
Violette, William
author_browse Barrett, Christopher B.
Liu, Yanyan
Pham, Trinh
Violette, William
author_facet Liu, Yanyan
Barrett, Christopher B.
Pham, Trinh
Violette, William
author_sort Liu, Yanyan
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description We combine nationally representative household and labor force survey data from 1992 to 2016 to provide a detailed description of rural labor market evolution and how it relates to the structural transformation of rural Vietnam, especially within the agricultural sector. Our study adds to the emerging literature on structural transformation in low-income countries using micro-level data and helps to answer several policy-related questions. We find limited employment creation potential of agriculture, especially for youth. Rural-urban real wage convergence has gone hand-in-hand with increased diversification of the rural economy into the non-farm sector nationwide and rapid advances in educational attainment in all sectors’ and regions’ workforce. Minimum wage laws seem to have played no significant role in increasing agricultural wages. This enhanced integration also manifests in steady attenuation of the longstanding inverse farm size-yield relationship. Farming has remained securely household-based and the family farmland distribution has remained largely unchanged. Small farm sizes have not obstructed mechanization nor the uptake of labor-saving pesticides, consistent with factor substitution induced by rising real wage rates. As rural households rely more heavily on the labor market, human capital accumulation (rather than land endowments) have become the key correlate of improvements in rural household well-being.
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spelling CGSpace1425682025-02-24T06:47:09Z The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam Liu, Yanyan Barrett, Christopher B. Pham, Trinh Violette, William structural adjustment rural employment rural economics nonfarm income households capacity development labour agriculture productivity farm size We combine nationally representative household and labor force survey data from 1992 to 2016 to provide a detailed description of rural labor market evolution and how it relates to the structural transformation of rural Vietnam, especially within the agricultural sector. Our study adds to the emerging literature on structural transformation in low-income countries using micro-level data and helps to answer several policy-related questions. We find limited employment creation potential of agriculture, especially for youth. Rural-urban real wage convergence has gone hand-in-hand with increased diversification of the rural economy into the non-farm sector nationwide and rapid advances in educational attainment in all sectors’ and regions’ workforce. Minimum wage laws seem to have played no significant role in increasing agricultural wages. This enhanced integration also manifests in steady attenuation of the longstanding inverse farm size-yield relationship. Farming has remained securely household-based and the family farmland distribution has remained largely unchanged. Small farm sizes have not obstructed mechanization nor the uptake of labor-saving pesticides, consistent with factor substitution induced by rising real wage rates. As rural households rely more heavily on the labor market, human capital accumulation (rather than land endowments) have become the key correlate of improvements in rural household well-being. 2020-07-01 2024-05-22T12:10:41Z 2024-05-22T12:10:41Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142568 en https://doi.org/10.3368/le.94.2.239 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154462 Open Access Elsevier Liu, Yanyan; Barrett, Christopher B.; Pham, Trinh; and Violette, William. 2020. The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam. Food Policy 94(July 2020): 101913. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101913
spellingShingle structural adjustment
rural employment
rural economics
nonfarm income
households
capacity development
labour
agriculture
productivity
farm size
Liu, Yanyan
Barrett, Christopher B.
Pham, Trinh
Violette, William
The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam
title The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam
title_full The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam
title_fullStr The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam
title_full_unstemmed The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam
title_short The intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation: Lessons from Vietnam
title_sort intertemporal evolution of agriculture and labor over a rapid structural transformation lessons from vietnam
topic structural adjustment
rural employment
rural economics
nonfarm income
households
capacity development
labour
agriculture
productivity
farm size
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142568
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