Seasonal Migration and Agricultural Production in Vietnam

When markets are incomplete migration can have multiple effects on agricultural production. I use instrumental variables techniques to explore the effects of seasonal migration on agricultural production in rural Vietnam during the 1990s. Using network variables specific to Vietnam as instruments, I find that migrant households in north Vietnam appear to move out of rice production and into the production of other crops. Inputs used by migrant households decrease relative to similar non-migrant households. The evidence is consistent with a shift from labor intensive into land-intensive crops, rather than productivity changes or the use of additional capital in production.