Andrew Wheeler (2016) The Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital in Vietnam

This paper examines the causal effect of parental education on the cognitive and non-cognitive development of children. I find that a parent’s education is a strong determinant of their child’s verbal aptitude, numerical aptitude and educational aspirations. Parents who complete high school rather than just primary school will on average lift their children’s cognitive performance by 24 percentiles in maths, 15 percentiles in vocabulary and 23 percentiles in reading tests. Children of these parents will also aspire to complete two more years of schooling. Somewhat surprisingly, I find that parental education has no impact on children’s self-esteem or self-efficacy. These results are robust to various specifications. I estimate these effects using instrumental variables, taking a change in education policy with differential effects on North Vietnam and South Vietnam as my instrument.

http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/workingpapers/pdfs/csae-wps-2016-22.pdf

Xiang Zhou and Yu Xie (2015) Intergenerational social mobility in China

In China as well as other post-socialist countries, the emergence of markets provided abundant opportunities for the old elites to convert their political power into physical capital, thus making socioeconomic status far more inheritable than before. Meanwhile, a more market-driven reward system spurred a sharp increase in income inequality, thereby equipping upper-class families with more resources and incentives to pass their economic advantages on to their offspring. The abolition of egalitarian educational policies, moreover, severely limited the channel of upward mobility for children of socioeconomically disadvantaged families. A combination of these processes may well explain the consolidation of status hierarchy and its influence on social fluidity.

Absolute rates of mobility, especially of upward mobility, have grown substantially from the cohort born in the 1950s to that born in the 1970s. This growth, however, has been entirely driven by the force of industrialization—that is, the placement of an increasingly larger share of children of farming origin into nonfarming occupations. When the farm sector is excluded, both the rise in upward mobility and the decline in class immobility disappear... Given that industrialization and rural-urban migration have sped up in China during the same period, this finding accords with our hypothesis that... the boundary between agriculture and other sectors tends to be more permeable in rapidly industrializing countries than in advanced industrial societies.

Xiang Zhou and Yu Xie (2015) Market Transition, Industrialization, andSocial Mobility Trends in Post-Revolution China

Martin Woodhead, Paul Dornan and Helen Murray (2013) Equality in schooling

‘Initial analysis from Young Lives school-effectiveness research in Vietnam gives some evidence on the ability of a school system to bring children from disadvantaged backgrounds up to the level expected by its curricula. Children who did less well on a maths test at around 10 years old (disproportionately those from less advantaged backgrounds) made most progress (Rolleston 2012). One interpretation of these results links to the observation that Vietnamese teaching was focused on the class (as a whole) achieving to an acceptable level, rather than increasing the stretch of the most able individuals. Further the Vietnamese curricula appeared well suited to appropriately develop children’s ability, rather than being over-ambitious. It is also apparent that the qualification levels of teachers in poorer areas tend to be quite similar to those teaching in more advantaged areas, which is probably due to centralised teacher training system.’

Martin Woodhead, Paul Dornan and Helen Murray (2013) What inequality means for children: Evidence from Young Lives Link

Bill Hayton (2010) Obedient youth

'But regardless of region, for the time being the desires of most urban young people seem to be quite compatible with those of their parents. Parents want their children to be successful, to avoid the privations of their own youth, and their children want the same – the tangible benefits of a rising standard of living. Surveys suggest that the more educated the children, the more concerned they are to obtain a good job. They’re prepared to study hard and work to achieve material success. Their horizons are wide and their hopes are high. In the mainstream of teenage and young adult life there’s very little cynicism or defiance of parental wishes. Traditional values of respect for elders and a sense of community responsibility are still strongly inculcated by parents and schools and the vast majority of children still expect their parents to have a strong influence over how they live their lives.'

Bill Hayton (2010) Vietnam: Rising Dragon Link

Ian Coxhead and Diep Phan (2013) Returns on state employment

'What both [state-owned enterprises] and civil administration have in common... is access to rents, which when distributed among their workers, generate potential for incomes that are higher than the earnings of equivalent workers in competitive industries.

[S]tate sector firms are far more intensive in their use of educated workers than are non-state firms... [T]he proportion of workers in non-state firms with a college degree remains extremely low (1.8% in 2008) by comparison with state firms (30%).

In 1993, workers in the state sector earned less on average than workers in the non-state sector. But this was prior to the implementation of most market and labor reforms; since then, they have earned about 40% more per hour than non-state workers.'

Ian Coxhead and Diep Phan (2013) Princelings and paupers? State employment and the distribution of human capital investments among Vietnamese households Link

Gerald C. Hickey (1960) Upward mobility in a Southern village in the first half of the 20th century

'Ownership of land is a primary value among the people of Khánh Hậu, and it is a fundamental requirement in the process of upward social mobility... After a man has accumulated sufficient land to pass on to his children, he begins to think about constructing a substantial house... It is extremely important that a man have sons to carry on the cult, land to provide economic support for the cult, and a substantial house where succeeding generations can maintain the ancestral altars and practice the cult rituals. The house also becomes a prestige symbol reflecting the affluence of the owner, his character as a groups provider, and his ability as a farmer.

As the villager's financial state improves, he is free to devote more time to village activities, another essential characteristic in the process of upward mobility. Once a man has established himself as a respected member of the community and a man of means, it is likely that he will be asked to accept a title in the Cult Committee... Once in the Cult Committee and the Village Council, the villager has more of an opportunity to participate in village affairs... At the present time [1950s], a villager also is expected to join the one political party in the village, and participate in the anti-communist meetings and demonstrations.

Literary is a secondary requisite in the process of upward mobility. Having a primary school certificate is not necessary for upper class status, although it does carry a good deal of prestige. The education of one's children is important, however, for the educational system has expanded considerably in recent years, and sending one's children to school is a sign of being good parent, an attribute highly valued in the village.

It is rare that a man moves from the lower class to the upper class and attains a place among the village venerables in his lifetime. The pattern of upward mobility in Khánh Hậu is for a family to rise over several generations. A man works to accumulate the means for purchasing some land to pass on to his sons and they are expected to build on this inheritance by securing more land. By this process a family may rise from the lower class to the middle class in two generations, and with good fortune, to the upper class in three generations.

For women of the village, the only means to upward mobility is through marriage. All women are expected to marry, and while they subsequently may engage in petty commerce or have a small couturier's shop in the front of the house, their class positions are determined by their husbands.'

Gerald C. Hickey (1960) PhD thesis: The Study of a Vietnamese Rural Community - Sociology Link

Caine Rolleston and Sofya Krutikova (2014) Gap in access to well-resourced schools and social selection in schooling

'Very large differences are observed between the most and least advantaged [Grade 5] pupils in terms of access to computers, calculators and the internet, ownership of a study desk/chair/lamp and on whether pupils have their own place to study or have more than ten books (other than school books) at home... Disadvantaged pupils are not found to be in schools with less experienced principals, principals who had received less in-service training or schools which were closed for more days as a result of unforeseen circumstances. They are, however, found to be in schools which receive fewer inspection visits, have lower assets overall and which are more likely to have ‘failing infrastructure’. Differences by home advantage emerge more strongly when going beyond ‘minimum standards’ to more nuanced measures ... Most notably, disadvantaged pupils are considerably less likely to be in schools with libraries, computer facilities, internet accessible to pupils and principals educated to university degree level or who had been awarded the status of ‘excellent teacher’.'

'[D]isadvantaged pupils tended to have lower achieving and more disadvantaged class-peers. In line with this trend, large differences in favour of more advantaged pupils were also found in peers’ opportunities to learn outside school, including use of computers outside school, hours of extra classes attended and ownership of learning materials.'

Caine Rolleston and Sofya Krutikova (2014) Equalising opportunity? School quality and home disadvantage in Vietnam Link

World Bank (2013) Rich - poor gap in early childhood development

'Much of the inequality in learning outcomes between different types of young Vietnamese observed in primary education and beyond is already established before the age of formal schooling.'

'Almost a quarter of Vietnamese children below the age of 5 are stunted (GSO and UNICEF, 2011), Apart from poverty, child malnutrition can be explained by inadequate infant and young child feeding practices, including low rates of breastfeeding. In Vietnam and around the world, stunting has been found to strongly negatively affect cognitive skills development (Le Thuc Duc, 2009). Some stunted children remain behind their peers for the rest of their lives.'

'The brain development of young children is highly sensitive to stimulation and interaction. The more parents and care-givers interact with a young child, for example through talking, singing or reading, the better are the conditions for brain development. However, evidence shows that in Vietnam young children from the poorest households receive less stimulation from their parents than children from the wealthiest ones. This implies that during these early years in which children's brains are the most sensitive to interactions and learning, children from poor households are not receiving the investments that they need and are already falling behind children from wealthier households.'

World Bank (2013) Skilling up Vietnam: Preparing the workforce for a modern market economy Link

Adam Fforde (2011) Critique of poverty measurement

'The Vietnamese experience suggests that the core problems of poverty of the current decade are precisely to do with power asymmetries and exclusion that are linked to structures that lead to groups ‘lower down the food chain’ having lives that are measured as having, relatively speaking, low incomes but high levels of health and education. This creates a stable ‘syndrome’, within which the usual mechanisms of stigmatisation (such as of  ‘backward’ ethnic groups) may come into play.'

Adam Fforde (2011) Vietnam: a discussion of poverty, its measurement and likely causes, with special reference to agriculture Link