Laura Prota
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Name: Laura Prota Course: PhD;ECON Department: Department of Economics Staff Supervisor: Associate Professor Melanie Beresford Email Address: lprota@efs.mq.edu.au Thesis Title Land market in Vietnam |
Abstract
The purpose of the research is to determine the impact of social networks on the land market in Vietnam. In much of the economic literature, security of tenure is assumed to have a positive effect on agricultural productivity, fostering individual long-term investments. However, many empirical studies on Vietnamese agriculture have highlighted how the land reform, far from promoting the development of a modern agribusiness sector, have only represented a one-time incentive. Moreover, land market participation is highly jeopardized across the country, bringing about the hypothesis of social and institutional barriers able to affect the real implementation of the formally acquired rights. The research will test the hypothesis that a network of social and institutional ties among actors strongly influences the governance structure of the land market in Vietnam, determining actors’ decision making, bargaining power and control over assets. Network analysis, based on fieldwork data collected from different areas of the country, will be used to understand structural market differences in different provinces of Vietnam, and to compare their relative efficiency.