By using the Viet Nam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) from 2008,
this paper quantifies the potential impacts of various cash transfer programs on oldage
poverty in Viet Nam. We use static micro-simulation techniques to estimate how
such programs could reduce such poverty. We consider three targeted groups of
elderly people along with four age thresholds to evaluate the potential impacts. We
find that a cash transfer program would be influential in reducing old-age poverty.
More importantly, our micro-simulation results indicate that, given limited funding,
targeting the rural elderly would be most effective for poverty reduction, and that a
program providing lower benefits to a higher number of beneficiaries would be better
in reducing poverty incidence than a program providing higher benefits to a lower
number of beneficiaries.