Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of sectoral economic growth and other factors on poverty reduction in Vietnam in the period 2010–2016. Design/methodology/approach Originating from the question of whether there is an endogenous problem between the structure of economic growth by sector and some other factors in the process of impact on poverty reduction, the paper has used the 2-Stage Least Squares method to deal with the endogenous issues. Findings Increasing the proportion of the industrial sector and the agricultural sector had great impacts on poverty reduction. In contrast, the increasing proportion of the service sector made the poverty rate higher. One noticeable thing is that economic growth was not significant for the goal of poverty reduction in 2010–2016. In addition, the process of urbanization, the increase in the labor rate and literacy rate contributed positively to poverty reduction achievements. Finally, population growth was also one of the reasons hindering Vietnam’s successful poverty reduction process. Practical implications Accelerating the process of economic restructuring in the direction of increasing the proportion of the industry is accompanied by more attention to agricultural development than the service sector. Employment creation policies should be promoted. Maintaining population control by educating poverty reduction awareness for the poor will have a positive effect on long-term poverty reduction. Originality/value Research on the growth structure by sector affecting poverty reduction in Vietnam is still relatively limited. The study of relationships in the context of endogenous existence is still quite limited in Vietnam. Therefore, this paper has focused on the question of sectoral economic growth affects poverty in the interrelation among sectors in the process of economic development.

In Vietnam, the issue of decentralization and implementation of decentralization have been a concern for a long time. This study focuses on the impact of fiscal decentralization on poverty reduction in Vietnam. Based on the provincial data with the use of the two-stage least squares method (2SLS), the estimation results obtained for the two periods show that fiscal decentralization had an impact on income/expenditure poverty reduction in the period from 2010–2015 and it had no significant effect on multidimensional poverty reduction in the period from 2016–2019. The study also found that economic growth, education and local welfare spending had an impact on poverty reduction in both stages, in which the impact of economic growth is relatively large, while the impact of welfare expenditures is relatively small in the locality. Improving infrastructure through information networks and increasing participation of people at the grassroots level have no impact on income/expenditure poverty reduction and multidimensional poverty in both the 2010–2015 and 2016–2019 periods.