Economic restructuring and responses to crisis: actors, institutions and developments in rural Vietnam/Thailand

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The occurrence of external shocks negatively affects poor regions of developing countries, oftentimes destroying the positive developments brought about by regional policy strategies and leading to an aggravation of regional disparities. In accordance with the objective of the research unit, this special project aims at understanding the impact of external shocks on regional vulnerability, regional economic development, and regional institutional frameworks. Individual and household strategies to reduce vulnerability analyzed in this project are migration, local off-farm-work and education to improve job opportunities. These strategies are closely related to institutional issues like property rights, contract enforcement, private entitlement to land, access to capital etc. The methodological approach is threefold. First, individual and household strategies are analyzed with the help of the household survey conducted in base project 2. Second, data on local off-farm-work opportunities will be collected by in-depth interviews with companies and local co-operative ventures. Third, interviews with regional stakeholders are conducted in order to assess the local institutional setting and to clarify its potential weaknesses. The perspective envisaged in this project will lead to a better understanding of the regional dimension of the vulnerability issue.