Transition economies allow the study of fundamental questions about the nature of markets. How do they arise and do they necessarily follow the same modus operandi as markets in other countries? How does the state influence the development of markets? How does the opening of the economy to global market influences affect the process of institutional change? How do people respond to both internal and external influences? And how in the context of an underdeveloped transitional economy like Vietnam, do such influences affect the prospects for sustainable and equitable development?

This book focuses on the differentiated ways in which the double transition in Vietnam, from central planning and from under-development, affects various sectors of the population.