The Role of Livelihood Capitals on Rural Households' Livelihood Strategy in Vietnam: New Sensitivity Analysis From Bayesian Network Approach

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the impacts of livelihood capitals on livelihood strategies in Vietnam rural areas. In addition, the authors examine the relationships and interaction among different livelihood capitals within the household livelihood context, with a focus on the sustainable livelihood framework. By using the five waves survey data set, the author applied K‐means clustering to identify the rural households' strategies and used the Bayesian Network to explore the relationships as well as conduct a sensitivity analysis of livelihood strategies based on different scenarios. The results pointed that the rural households in Vietnam can be characterized by four distinct livelihood strategies. The study showed that livelihood capitals (except financial capital) affect identified strategies through their indicators at both sole and interactive impacts. The author also highlighted the varying impacts on households' strategies, and the significant interactions among livelihood capitals, underscoring their substantial influence on household livelihood strategies. This study suggests an expanded livelihood framework to examine the role of livelihood capitals on households' strategies and suggests enhancing the role of social capital and human capital in public policy for supporting households' livelihood.