Unexploded ordnance contamination and household livelihood choice in rural Vietnam

Thuy Ngoc Nguyen (), Tuyen Tran and Huong Van Vu ()
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Thuy Ngoc Nguyen: University of Economics and Business, Hanoi, Vietnam
Huong Van Vu: Thang Long Institute of Mathematics and Applied Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam

Russian Journal of Economics, 2022, vol. 8, issue 3, 276-294

Abstract: Vietnam is a country that found itself at the center of the Indochina wars and was subjected to the most intense aerial bombing in history. However, little research has been done on the effect of unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination on household livelihoods in rural Vietnam. In this paper, we investigate the contaminating effect of unexploded ordnance on households. Livelihood choices are classified by cluster analysis techniques, and unexploded ordnance contamination is measured at the district level by the proportion of land at risk from unexploded bombs and mines. We examine the effect of UXO contamination on livelihood choices using a multinomial logit model, controlling for various important household and regional level characteristics. It was found that households in districts with greater contamination were less likely to adopt a formal wage-earning livelihood, characterized by higher income and less poverty, than they were to engage in an agricultural livelihood. This suggests that the Indochina wars have had a long-running effect, reducing the likelihood of non-farm diversification, which in turn diminishes economic well-being among rural households in Vietnam.

Keywords: contaminated; land; unexploded; ordnance; contamination; rural; livelihood; rural; Vietnam; Vietnam; War (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 N45 N55 Q12 Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arh:jrujec:v:8:y:2022:i:3:p:276-294

DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.8.79738

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