Economic growth and changes in welfares during the economic reforms in Vietnam
Over the past 20 years, with the reform policy called Doi Moicomprehensively applied to the economy, Vietnam has achieved great results in her economic development process. High rate of economic growth with average of 7-8% per annum sustained for almost nearly two decades has contributed to considerable increase in per capita income, from 180 USD in early 1990s to nearly 1,200 USD in 2010. With the considerable increase in per capita income, there was the improvement of the people’s general welfare. However, growth and development in the past 20 years has contributed to increase the gap between rich and poor. By using the qualitative method combined with the data explanatory analysis and the method of computing Gini index of inequality as well as growth model, the findings pointed that generally the income inequality in Vietnam during the 1998-2008 period (irrespective of the source of income) is in increasing tendency. In addition, based on the growth model estimation results, the study proved that the economic growth rate is in positively correlated to inequality in come.