Urban-rural income inequality in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Tóm tắt

This research analyzes income inequality between urban and rural households in the Mekong Delta, Southern Vietnam. The paper applies the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method based on the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey data sets in 2018 and 2020. The decomposition results show that the average income gap decreased from 25.5 percent in 2018 to 20 percent in 2020. The income gap is mainly attributed to the difference in the two sectors’
human capital, physical capital and financial capital. The education of household members has a significant contribution to inequality. Higher education for urban residents increases the income gap, while higher return to higher education in rural areas reduces the income gap between the two regions. In addition, rural households owning more productive land helps
narrow the income gap in terms of both characteristic and coefficient effects.