The Roles of Grassroots Government and Associations Versus Internet Access in Households’ Income in Vietnam

This paper investigates the roles played by government and associations at grassroots level and internet access in households’ welfare in Vietnam. We employ the random walk Metropolis-Hastings Markov chain Monte Carlo method with data from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey in 2018. It seems that internet usage has made a powerful impact on people’s well-being, increasing a typical household’s income per capita by 34.1%. In contrast, it does no good to participate in local associations which even marginally reduce their members’ income. Unfair communes that do not give subsidies to poor households as mandated by national policies harm not only poor but also non-poor families living in these communes. Local governments should be enforced to follow national laws and policies, and to help the poor.