Resource information
The decollectivization of agriculture in
Vietnam was a crucial step in the country's transition
to a market economy. But the assignment of land use rights
had to be decentralized, and local cadres ostensibly had the
power to corrupt this process. The authors assess the
realized land allocation against explicit counterfactuals,
including the simulated allocation implied by a competitive
market-based privatization. The authors find that 95-99
percent of maximum aggregate consumption (depending on the
region) was realized by a land allocation that reduced
overall inequality, with the poorest absolutely better off.
They attribute this outcome to initial conditions at the
time of reform and actions by the center to curtail the
power of local elites.
