Deltas Apart

This study provides an explanation of the different pathways of agricultural change
and economic development in north and south Vietnam. It shows that pre-colonial
factor endowments conditioned the development of the rice economies of the two
deltas in Tonkin and Cochinchina. The study relates to, and deviates from, the new
literature on the colonial origins of contemporary development (Acemoglu, Johnson
and Robinson; Engerman and Sokoloff), and proposes an alternative understanding of
how historical processes of economic transformation are shaped. The analysis revives
the factor endowment approach (Boserup, Myint), re-interprets an old and controversial
debate (Moral Economy versus Rational Peasant), and presents a new understanding
of extraction in colonial times (based on Milanovic, Lindert and Williamson). The
study"s theoretical interpretation of scant empirical data suggests that factor endowments
conditioned the surplus capacity and shaped the institutional arrangements,
which affected the equality of opportunity for the majority of rice farmers.