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mainly Chinese families from the Cho Lon district of Ho Chi Minh City.
Therefore, products and credit markets are clearly segmented.
The institutional analysis of the hog market reveals two different organizations.
On the one hand, in the North, market institutions are private: private trader
networks reduce information costs and attenuate potential opportunism in rural
areas, and private actors provide services traditionally considered as public
(credit, slaughter) in the urban areas. On the other hand, in the South, market
institutions are mainly public: slaughterhouses are all ruled by local government
authorities that provide public services, and carcasses are sold in wholesale
auction markets.
These findings suggest a paradox: considering that Vietnamese collectivization
has been stronger and existed longer in the North—1954 to 1986 —than in the
South—1975 to 1986, one would expect more public goods to be provided in the
North. The explanation lies in the cultural traits and historical heritage of both
regions that have shaped different types of societies and thus differences in market
embeddedness.
The cultural traits of the Vietnamese population are based on the association of
Confucianism and Buddhism. The former put the family and the lineage at the
center of social relations, whereas the latter supports a more contemplative and
individualistic attitude. Previous research showed how the natural resource
endowments of the North and the South of Vietnam, as well as the history of both
regions, have contributed to the expression of the collective and the individualistic
side of the culture, respectively (Le Goulven, 2000).
The natural conditions in the North have contributed to the development of
collective institutions to socialize individual risks: mutual aid for irrigation works
and collective storage of grain, and insurance systems for natural catastrophes
have been major institutions in the social organization of Northern villages.
Moreover, the North has been subject to very high demographic pressure, and to
several and recurrent conflicts with invaders. The rural collective was therefore
also organized for military defense.
In the South, the abundance of land, the low demographic pressure, and the
distribution of the population along canals and roads have defined a different
social system, where the population is more oriented toward the outside and less
suspicious of foreign people. During the communist period, those differences
were maintained if not accentuated. The collectivization of agriculture and the
definition of the agricultural cooperative at the commune level confirm the
isolation of traditional rural institutions independent from central government.
The South has been reluctant to collectivize and to submit to communist control.
Therefore, after the Renovation, the Southerners were more receptive to the
market economy that they had in any case experienced during the American
occupation. The functioning of the Northern system could be compared to a
collectivist system when contract enforcement is mainly based on the reputation