The interrelationship between formal and informal decentralization and its impact of subcentral governance performance : the case of Vietnam (Law and economics)

Formal and informal institutions are often viewed as complements or substitutes in empirical and theoretical studies. In this article, we find no evidence of complementary or substitutive relationships in our empirical analysis of the relationship between formal and informal decentralization across 64 provinces in Vietnam. Instead, the formally decentralized system of public goods and service provision accommodates the informal one, and informal decentralization in public order provision tends to compete with the existing and ineffective formal system. This implies that the central government needs to reorganize the decentralized provision of public order and public goods and services to make informal institutions complements to rather than competitors of or free-riders on formal institutions.