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Introduction Introduction

1. Background and the relevance of the topic

In developing countries in general and in Vietnam in particular, capital mobilization plays a decisive role in economic development. Since the renovation, the Vietnamese government has carried out many favorable policies to attract foreign investment and has gained some success. However, foreign investment may be affected by many controllable and uncontrollable factors and that the mass withdrawal of foreign investment in the region created many difficulties for the host economies.

In 1995- 2001 period, household saving in Vietnam accounted for from 31 to 48 percent of the total domestic saving (Chinh et al, 2002). However, saving rates among households is still very low. Household on average saves VND 823 thousand a year, which equals to 6 percent of total household disposable income.

This thesis seeks to contribute to the existing literature on the empirical study of household saving behavior in two ways: by focusing on household in Vietnam and by using econometrical tool to analyse the quantitative impact of the related variables affecting household saving in Vietnam in a particular period of 1997-1998.

2. Focus and scope of the thesis

2.1. Focuses

The study focuses on analysing the impact of determinants of household saving behavior in Vietnam based on data from Vietnam Living Standard Surveys

2.2 Scope

The thesis focuses on the household level, rather than aggregate, private saving in a nation wide framework.

3. Research questions

The central research question of the thesis is “What are the major determinants of household saving in Vietnam?”

4. Research methodology

The thesis makes an extensive use of econometric methods. Qualitative and descriptive methods will also be used in the analysis.

5. Data sources and limitation

The primary data were obtained from the VLSS conducted in 1997-1998. Secondary data: these data were collected from various sources as VLSS 92-93, official and unofficial reports and documents.

The study would be more interesting if the data at household level were available

6. Structure of the thesis


 

Chapter I:
Theoretical frameworks and empirical studies
on household saving behavior

1.1. Concepts and Definitions

               

This section devoted to analyse the concept and definition of household and household members as well as consumption and saving

1.2. Theoretical framework on household saving behavior


1.2.1. Keynesian view of saving

Keynes approach started on his introspection and casual observation. His saving function was constructed based on three conjectures as follow:

·        Marginal propensity to save (MPS) varies from 0 to 1.

·        Average Propensity to Save rises as income rises.

·        Income is the primary determinant of consumption and saving

Keynesian consumption and saving functions are often written in the form below:

 

C= C0 + MPC.Y

 

 

S= -C0 + MPS.Y

 

 

In which

C:

Household’s Consumption

 

S:

Household’s current Saving

 

C0:

Autonomous consumption

 

MPC:

Marginal propensity to consume (exogenous variable)

 

MPS:

Marginal propensity to save (exogenous variable)

         

1.2.2 Irving Fisher and the intertemporal choice model


Intertemporal budget constraint

C1+ C2/(1+r)= Y1+ Y2/(1+r)

 

 Household’s preferences

A particular utility function denoted by UL(C1, C2) behaves like any other utility function familiar from consumer theory.

Household decision-making

Household would like to end up with the best possible combination of consumption in the two periods i.e. on the highest possible indifferent curve. However, the budget constraint requires that the household must also end up on or below the budget line

Irving Fisher’s intertemporal choice model can be used to explain how a household behaves when there is a change in one of the exogenous variables such as income, real interest rate.

1.2.3. Franco Modigliani and the life cycle hypothesis

Based on Fisher’s model, Modigliani (1966) has developed a model, which emphasizes that income varies systematically over people’s lives, and that saving allows consumers to move income from these times in life when income is high to those when income is low (Mankiw, 1994).

Consider a consumer who expects to live another T years, has wealth of W, and expects to earn annual income Y until he retires R year from now.

The saving functions can be found as

            S= -(1/T).W+ (1-R/T).Y

(1.15)

1.2.4. Milton Friedman and the permanent income hypothesis

Milton Friedman’s permanent income hypothesis used Irving Fisher’s theory to argue that consumption should not depend on current income alone. The PIH emphasizes that people exerience random and temporary changes in their incomes from year to year.

The current income Y is the sum of the two components permanent income (denoted by YP) and transitory income (denoted by YT)

1.2.5. Conclusion of the theoretical framework:

1.3. Outstanding Empirical studies on household saving behavior

There have been much empirical literature on saving behavior base on the aggregate (macro) data and household (micro) data, however many issues remain unresolved. This section devoted to the main hypotheses that have guided previous works will be discussed.

1.4. Chapter remarks

Chapter 2:
Overview of Vietnam's economy and household saving

2.1. Overview of Vietnam's economy

Source: 1986-1999: Economic Study, 1999, No 255, 2000-2002 World Bank

            Table 2.3: Saving mobilization through the baking system, 1991-1999

Unit: billion VND

 

12/92

12/93

12/94

12/95

12/96

12/97

12/98

12/99

Deposit in VND

8,091

10,590

14,376

22,497

28,063

35,023

37,649

42,534

of which

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demand deposit

3,971

4,796

4,903

6,882

9,354

14,273

11,695

12,465

Time/Saving deposit

4,210

5,794

9,473

15,597

18,709

20,750

25,954

30,069

Foreign currency deposit

8,214

7,406

8,193

11,061

12,084

15,456

na

21.536

Total

16,305

17,996

22,569

33,540

40,147

50,479

na

64,070

na: Not Available

Source: OECF Research paper No 9 1992- 1997, Vietnam banking review 1997-2000.

Table 2.5: Cross- country comparison of ICOR in 1991-1998

 

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

Vietnam

2.4

1.8

2.2

2.8

2.7

3.1

3.6

5.3

Hong Kong

5.3

4.3

4.7

5.1

8.2

7.7

6.1

-

Korea

3.5

7.7

6.3

4.1

4.1

5.2

7.0

-

Singapore

5.7

5.5

3.4

3.9

3.7

4.8

4.5

-

Taiwan

3.0

3.4

3.9

3.9

3.9

4.2

3.1

4.6

China

3.6

2.4

2.7

3.4

3.9

4.3

4.6

4.9

Indonesia

3.4

4.7

4.6

3.9

3.8

4.1

6.3

-

Malaysia

3.7

4.9

4.5

4.1

4.3

5.1

5.4

-

Philippine

-

-

9.90

5.4

5.0

3.7

4.4

-

Source: Economic Study, No 255, 1999.

2.2. Trend of household saving in Vietnam

2.2.1. Characteristics of households in Vietnam


The proportion of males and females were 48.78 and 51.22 percent respectively in 1990 and has reduced to 49.16 and 50.84 percent in 2000. In 1998, the urban population accounted for 22.43% and the rural population accounted for 77.57%. The average household size also changes from region to region with the greatest household size of 5.2 people in rural South and the smallest household size of 4.0 people in urban North. The overall dependency ratio was 0.79 of which children accounts for 0.61. Male household heads made up 74.44 and most household heads have low level of education (81.02% have not finished general education of which 7.99% never attending school).

2.2.2. Household income

Table 2.7: Household income by components in 1998

Unit: thousand VND

 

Urban

Rural

 

Farm

Non-farm

Total

Farm

Non-farm

Total

Number of Household

190

1,540

1,730

3,248

1,021

4,269

Total income

15,538

25,246

24,180

11,001

16,480

12,311

By components:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agricultural

10,586

315

1,442

7,176

2,848

6,141

Wages

1,008

8,258

7,463

1,156

4,585

1,976

Non-farm income

1,473

11,040

9,990

1,074

6,881

2,462

Pension & Scholarship

1,343

876

928

430

306

399

Domestic remittance

246

1,726

1,564

180

417

237

Oversea remittance

364

802

754

255

432

298

Other income

519

2,227

2,039

729

1,012

797

Household size

4.0

4.5

4.5

4.9

4.9

4.9

Per capital income

3,711

5,909

5,667

2,377

3,496

2,645

Per capital consumption

3,232

5,477

5,230

2,212

2,836

2,361

Source: Author’s calculation from Vietnam Living Standard Survey 1997-1998


 

2.2.3. Household expenditure

Table 2.9: Household expenditure by components in 1998

Unit: thousand VND

 

Urban

Rural

 

Farm

Non-farm

Farm

Non-farm

Total expenditure

12,567

24,578

10,367

13,327

Of which:

 

 

 

 

Rice expenditure

2,133

1,805

2,486

2,293

Food and foodstuff expenditure

4,394

8,471

3,491

4,709

Non-food and non-foodstuff expenditure

2,018

4,052

1641

2,231

Education expenditure

668

1758

511

770

Health expenditure

705

1033

633

805

Utilization of durables expenditure

1,257

3812

993

1,613

Garbage disposal expenditure

5.1

44