Those empirical studies that were based on datasets from the 1990s have problems in showing how an improvement of tenure security by LUCs links to increased lifetime income and expenditure patterns (Do and Iyer 2008). The time lag between the issuing of the Land Law in 1993 and the data collection period of 1997–98 only allows for transitional outcomes. For instance, investments in perennial crops and trees pay off only after a minimum of four years. While credit constraints and rationing exist, consumption can fall even in periods of investment.
Extending the observation period leads to more diversified results. For instance, during the period 1993–2004, there was not only a reduction in landlessness among the poorest, but also, the trend rate of poverty reduction between 1993–2004 is slightly higher for the landless than for the rest of the rural population, with the exception of the Mekong Delta, which has a unique history of land ownership (Ravaillion and van de Walle 2008). Overall, rising landlessness in Vietnam has been poverty reducing,