Provincial budget transparency and economic development in Vietnam

The paper aims to investigate the Provincial Open Budget Index (POBI) situation and its impacts on income per capita and the poverty rate in Vietnam. This study utilized secondary data from websites to conduct panel data analysis across all 63 Vietnamese provinces/cities from 2018 to 2022. By employing ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, various factors, especially POBI scores, are analyzed to see how they affect income per capita and poverty rates. The main findings are: (i) Transparency, particularly budget transparency, represents one of the eight pillars of good governance; (ii) Published annually since 2017, the POBI provides a standardized measurement framework; (iii) The POBI scores have steadily improved during the study period, positively correlated with increased income per capita and contributing to poverty reduction efforts.