Effects of Overseas Remittances on Small Vietnamese Rice Farming Households

Cornell Univ - State: Awds Made Prior May 2010, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project studies effects of remittances by distant faily members on household and community structures in Vietnam. Recipient and non-recipient households are compared in terms of family hierarchies and community political power relations. In addition, results are compared to a second country, the Philippines, with a different historical background. Three kinds of analyses will be conducted. The first stage is to analyze existing data on income, education, and changes in agriculture to test some ideas on effects of remittances. The second is factor analysis of those data to uncover patterns involving remittances, household economic patterns, demographic factors, and the local economies. The third set of analyses will come from semi-structured interviews conducted in recipient and non-recipient households, to explore effects of the income on daily life patterns such as power relations within the family. This research builds on other work by the PI's on remittances, and will explore both established and novel patterns. It is the first such study conducted within Vietnam, a country in which traditional agriculture is rapidly modernizing and also being supplanted by industrial production. Comparisons with the Philippines will permit controlling for other factors that otherwise might lead to conclusions from spurious correlations within a single country. The value of this work is to improve theoretical understanding of rural change and economic development.