Can Vietnam Achieve One of its Millennium Development Goals?
) Abstract The objectives of this study are to identify the underlying determinants of the schooling dropout in Vietnam and to project its trend in the future up to 2015. Our examination is largely based on the three Vietnam’s Living Standard Surveys conducted in 1992/93, 1997/98 and 2001/02 and the conventional framework of educational investment at the household level. The major determinants of the schooling dropout choice by households are found to be variables of child’s characteristics (such as age, working time, primary education, and number of siblings) and household economic situation (such as parental education, household’s per capita expenditure, and cost of schooling). In general, the effects of these determinants on the schooling dropout probability are statistically significant. In particular, the schooling dropout probability has been very sensitive to the changes in the household’s per capita expenditure and the direct costs of schooling, whereas recently the other deter