Trade Liberalisation and Poverty ─ Vietnam Now and Beyond

This book uses Alan Winters’ analytical framework to investigate the effects of trade liberalisation on economic growth and poverty in Vietnam. The country launched a programme of economic and trade reforms, known asDoi Moi, in the mid-1980s which placed the economy on a transitional path from central planning to a market economy. Since then Vietnam has attained a number of remarkable achievements in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction. Although some formidable problems (such as inequality and inflation) remain, it is apparent that trade liberalisation has been associated with a big reduction in poverty.

The analysis in the book focuses on the microeconomic (household) level, and there is an emphasis on tracing the effects of trade liberalisation through the four separate channels identified by Winters. Such in-depth and micro-level analyses yield new insights that support important policy lessons and recommendations for Vietnam in particular and, more generally, for similar developing countries.

Minh Son Le, PhD (Griffith University), is a Lecturer at the International Economics Faculty, Banking University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. His current teaching areas are econometrics, macroeconomics and economics of development. His primary research interests include trade liberalisation and poverty, institutional economics, and private sector development. He has recently published in theJournal of Asian Economics.

Tarlok Singh, PhD (UNSW), is a Senior Lecturer at the Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He teaches applied econometrics, international economics, financial economics, macroeconomics, and monetary economics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Griffith. His main research interests are applied econometrics, economic growth, financial economics, monetary economics, and open economy macroeconomics. He has supervised a number of PhD students in the areas of economic growth and financial economics.

Tarlok has published in several international journals including Applied Economics, Applied Economics Letters, Economic Modelling, Empirical Economics, The World Economy, Journal of Economic Surveys, Journal of Policy Modeling, International Review of Applied Economics, Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Research in Economics, and World Economics. His work has been cited widely in a number of reputed international journals including Journal of Money, Credit & Banking, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Economic Surveys, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Applied Economics, Economic Modelling, Journal of Policy Modeling, The World Economy, World Development, and Review of World Economics.

Duc-Tho Nguyen, PhD, is an Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, where he previously held senior positions, including Dean of Commerce and Administration, and Head of the School of Economics. His main research interests are economic growth and development, macroeconomic issues in Asia-Pacific economies, financial economics, and applied economics.

His papers have appeared in leading economics journals, including American Economic Review,International Economic Review, European Economic Review, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking,and Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy.

Tom was Co-Editor of Exchange Rates and the Economy (supplement to the journalEconomic Record, Vol.63, 1987), Joint Editor of the journal Economic Analysis and Policy (Economic Society of Australia, Queensland Branch, 1990-1993), Co-Editor ofEconomic Reform, Liberalisation, and Trade in the Asia-Pacific Region (Wiley Eastern, 1994), Co-Editor ofModelling and Control of National and Regional Economies (Elsevier Science, 1995), Editor ofQueensland, Australia and the Asia-Pacific Economy (Economic Society of Australia, Queensland Branch, 1996), and Co-Editor ofTelecommunications Reforms in the Asia-Pacific Region: Economic and Regulatory Lessons (Edward Elgar, 2004).

Prior to joining Griffith University, Tom held academic positions in New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington), the USA (the University of Illinois), and Australia (Australian National University, University of Adelaide). He was also in the Australian Public Service (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics) for a number of years, and has been a Consultant for a number of organisations, including AusAID, UNDP, World Bank, and ILO.