Quan V. Le

User fees and health service utilization in Vietnam: How to protect the poor?

OBJECTIVES Vietnam started its health reform process two decades ago, initiated by economic reform in 1986. Economic reform has rapidly changed the socio-economic environment with the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented economy. Health reform in Vietnam has been associated with the introduction of user fees, the legalization of private medical practices, and the commercialization of the pharmaceutical industry. This paper presents the user fees and health service utilization in Vietnam during a critical period of economic transition in the 1990s. STUDY DESIGN The study is based on two national household surveys: the Vietnam Living Standard Survey 1992-1993 and 1997-1998. METHODS The concentration index and related concentration curve were used to measure differences in health service utilization as indicators of health outcomes of income quintiles, ranking from the poorest to the richest. RESULTS User fees contribute to health resources and have helped to relieve the financial burden on the Government. However, comparisons of concentration indices for hospital stays and community health centre visits show that user fees can drive people deeper into poverty, widen the gap between the rich and the poor, and increase inequality in health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS An effective social protection and targeting system is proposed to protect the poor from the impact of user fees, to increase equity and improve the quality of healthcare services. This cannot be done without taking measures to improve the quality of care and promote ethical standards in health care, including the elimination of unofficial payments.

Corruption and Capital Flight: An Empirical Assessment

Abstract This paper considers the role of corruption in impelling capital flight. Identifying corruption as one dimension of poor governance, the empirical analysis explores direct linkages between corruption and capital flight in a broad sample of countries. The novelty of this investigation is that it is based on a portfolio choice model of asset allocation that explicitly recognizes corruption as contributing to the variance of domestic investment risk. The main testable proposition emerging from our theoretical specification is stated thus: does corruption impel capital flight by raising the risk of domestic investment, ceteris paribus? An econometric analysis suggests that, holding other determinants of capital flight constant, corruption does have a positive and significant impact on capital flight. Based on these results, the paper concludes that advocating good governance by combating corruption makes a great deal of sense for countries aiming to staunch capital flight. Capital flight and corruption are some of the main causes of the poverty in the South. Without capital flight and corruption the debt crisis would not exist in its current form. Capital Flight and Corruption Treaty NGO Alternative Treaties at the 1992 Global Forum

International Service Learning and Short-Term Business Study Abroad Programs: A Case Study

A service learning project was recently incorporated into a short-term business study abroad program. The main objective was to assess whether there is a place for service learning projects and how they should be integrated into the program. A combination of two surveys were used, one taken before the project and one after. Reflection papers were also analyzed. The findings revealed the effectiveness of service learning in making business students not only aware, but also sensitive to poverty in a developing country. As a result, students may approach business decisions with a greater understanding of their impact on poverty and society.

An Assessment of Experiential Learning of Global Poverty Issues Through International Service Projects

Service learning has been used to supplement a standard business curriculum, but not typically in an international business context. We report the results of two short-term study abroad programs in which we incorporated service learning projects, one in Cambodia and the other in Vietnam. Our objective is to assess how we organized and delivered effective service learning projects in short-term study tours, and to assess students’ learning outcomes on global poverty issues in a business curriculum. We used both quantitative and qualitative assessment measures. The findings suggest that several types of learning outcomes did occur through the service learning projects, as the literature suggested. Seeing poverty firsthand and doing something about it through service learning may be a first experience for many students, but it seems to be a transformational one for many. We conclude that students may approach business and even political decisions with a greater understanding of their impact on poverty in the developing world.

The Impact of an Integrated Microcredit Program on The Empowerment of Women and Gender Equality in Rural Vietnam

In this paper we attempt to analyze the impact of an integrated microcredit program on the empowerment of women in rural Vietnam. We conduct a longitudinal study in 2008 and 2012 on a sample of 50 microcredit recipients. The finding indicates the importance of the empowerment components in the Peace Trees microcredit program, which serves as leverage for higher income generation and greater gender equality. The study emphasizes the role of the Women’s Union in designing and implementing the microcredit program with the objective of empowering women. This study supports the importance of the feminist empowerment paradigm in which empowerment is a best practice when a gender equality approach is embedded in program design, rather than an add-on benefit. The microcredit program has also integrated the poverty alleviation paradigm and the financial self-sustainability paradigm.

Woman Entrepreneurship in Rural Vietnam: Success and Motivational Factors

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of a number of variables on the perceptions of women entrepreneurs’ success and motivational factors. We partnered with PeaceTrees Vietnam, a Seattle-based NGO and the Women’s Union of Vietnam to conduct field work in Quang Tri province in central Vietnam. A survey was administered to 20 women entrepreneurs in 6 different communes. Of the 120 surveys administered, 109 usable surveys were received. We found that women owners of businesses in Quang Tri Province perceived success to be a result of their values and perceptions of entrepreneurship. Similarly, the women were motivated by both their perceptions of values and perceptions of entrepreneurship.

Teaching business skills to women

Purpose – There is currently a debate between NGOs and academia on the effectiveness of training microcredit recipients. One side suggests that merely supplying credit will stimulate entrepreneurial business. The other side proposes that training microcredit recipients in business skills will improve business performance and probably have other important effects. This study was undertaken with the cooperation Vietnam Women’s Union and PeaceTrees Vietnam. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of business training programmes for women microcredit recipients in rural areas of Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach – Using a questionnaire administered to 120 women business owners in several communes in Quang Tri Province, data were collected in 2012 on their business training programmes, perceptions of their business performance, motivation, factors for success, and several other indicators. Findings – The findings suggest that business training can improve microenterprise performance and has a nu...

Crisis to Crisis: FDI Redux

In this paper, we examine the impact of institutional quality on foreign direct investment (FDI) and on the volatility of FDI. By utilizing data in a post Asian financial crisis context, we can examine whether the crisis has an immediate impact on retarding FDI. Based on our analysis of panel data of 164 countries from 1996-2006, our results lead us to believe that good institutional quality matters to FDI. We provide evidence that institutional quality has a positive and significant effect on FDI, but a negative and significant effect on FDI volatility. More specifically, we find that a one standard deviation change in institutional quality improves FDI by a factor of 1.69.