Give a Fish or Teach to Fish? Poverty Alleviation Effect of Government Support Policies and Self-Help Commercial Activities

Bibliographic Data

ID7171007
AuthorsChinh Hoang-Duc (0000-0002-2391-8207, University of Manchester), Tuan Nguyen-Anh (0000-0001-8285-9908, Faculty of Political Economy, VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University), Hang Nguyen-Thu (0000-0002-3494-4160, Faculty of Political Economy, VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University), Vuong Vu-Tien (0000-0002-0328-5086, Vietnam National University of Agriculture), Thao Le-Phuong (Vietnam National University of Agriculture), Nguyen To-The (0000-0002-8839-255X, Faculty of Political Economy, VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume61
Issue3
Pages400-423
Publication date2025-03-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Development Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0388 • E-ISSN: 1743-9140
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00220388.2024.2413082
OpenAlexW4403659839
LanguageEN
References cited50

This study explores the interactive effect of self-help efforts, specifically through household decisions to engage in commercialisation, and external supports provided via government antipoverty policies, on poverty reduction among poor households in northern Vietnam. With observational data from 1383 surveyed households, we use an estimation strategy combining inverse probability weighting, regression adjustment, and two-stage least squares to address selection bias and omitted variable bias in two variables of interest. We find that while these two interventions are individually effective in alleviating poverty, their combination is not necessarily as effective. Our results show that commercialisation only reduces poverty among non-supported households, while government supports are more effective among non-commercial households. This substitution of effects comes from the nature of support targeting and commercialisation. Households receiving supports often have lower capacity, making commercialisation ineffective or even impossible. Furthermore, current support policies are insufficient to enhance the impact of commercialisation. These results suggest that there could be more effective ways to combine external interventions and self-help efforts to better alleviate poverty

Biology · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Fish · Fish <Actinopterygii> · Fishery · Government (linguistics) · Poverty · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare

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