Determinants of Rural-Urban Inequality in Vietnam: Detailed Decomposition Analyses Based on Unconditional Quantile Regressions
利用2008-2012年越南家庭数据，通过无条件分位数回归分解城乡福利差距，发现基础教育对农村贫困人口和少数民族有益，汇款改善农村福利但未减少不平等。
This study examines determinants of the rural-urban gap of household welfare in Vietnam during 2008–2012 using national household data. We have used unconditional quantile regressions (UQR) to carry out quantile decomposition analyses to identify underlying causes for the rural-urban disparity across the entire distribution. Our analyses have overcome the limitations of Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, namely, (i) decomposition is made only at mean and (ii) a dependent variable has a linear and parametric relationship with covariates. For these purposes, we have carried out detailed decomposition analyses and the UQR decomposition (N) combined with the reweighting technique. Our results show that basic education is beneficial to the rural poor and ethnic minorities in improving their living standards. Remittances generally improve rural welfare, but do not reduce within or between-inequality. Public policy should ensure easier access to education for the rural poor and support the self-employed to raise and stabilise income.