Intergenerational mobility of earnings and income among sons and daughters in Vietnam

Abstract

This paper empirically examines intergenerational economic mobility in Vietnam. The two-sample two-stage least squares estimation is employed to achieve the research objective using two primary samples of father-son pairs and father-daughter pairs from Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey of 2012, and one secondary sample from Vietnam Living Standards Survey of 1997-1998. The baseline intergenerational elasticity estimates show that Vietnam occupies the intermediate degrees of intergenerational mobility of earnings and income for both sons and daughters. In particular, a rise of 10% in fathers’ individual earnings is on average associated with an increase of 3.61% and 3.94% for sons’ individual earnings and individual income, respectively. The corresponding figures for daughters’ individual earnings and individual income are 2.84% and 3.33%, respectively. This paper also provides evidence on the average degree of inequality of opportunity in Vietnam during its transition from a central planning economy to a market-oriented system.