A propensity score matching analysis on the impact of international migration on entrepreneurship in Vietnam

This paper investigates the impact of international migration on job creation in the informal sector in Vietnam. Using the national representative household data on international migration in 2008, the results find no self-employment differential between migrant and non-migrant households. International migration matters only if business scale is taken into account. Estimations using the propensity score matching method reveal that Vietnam's migrant households are either poor or rich families. This points to the effectiveness of government labour export programmes designed to reduce poverty and the tendency of rich families to send children to study abroad. The results also show that international migration has no impact on entrepreneurship, and thus employment generation in the informal sector, raising concerns about the lasting impact of migration.