Household Savings in Vietnam: Insights from a 2006 Rural Household Survey

The aim of this paper is to inform the reader about the rural households' saving situation in Vietnam and the determinants of household saving with special interest in the possible effects of network savings behavior on household savings behavior. In Vietnam households hold capital through informal means. This means prevents it in many cases from being used effectively for investment purposes. Disseminating information about the merits of institutional saving could potentially stimulate formal household savings making. We discuss the extent to which social networks may act as an effective information transmission mechanism, and also argue that the nature and quality of the information disseminated must be carefully considered to expect the desired policy response.