Institutions and inequality in single-party regimes a comparative analysis of vietnam and China

Abstract

Despite the fact that China and Vietnam have been the world's two fastest growing economies over the past two decades,their income inequality patterns are very different. An examination of the political institutions in the two countries shows that profound differences between these polities influence distributional choices. In particular,as compared to China,elite institutions in Vietnam encourage the construction of broader policymaking coalitions,have more competitive selection processes,and place more constraints on executive decision making. As a result,stronger political motivations exist for Vietnamese leaders to provide equalizing transfers that limit inequality growth among provinces than for Chinese leaders.