Much of economic growth and poverty reduction in Viet Nam has been attributed to market reforms that decentralized agricultural collectives, reformed land rights, privatized State-owned enterprises, and removed barriers to international trade and investment. This thesis brings to light the contribution of rapid changes in access to finance through a significant infusion of State subsidized credit that transformed rural credit markets, and the contribution of international remittance flows, on poverty reduction and growth. The thesis provides an understanding of the economy that shaped household access to credit in the context of market reforms and financial system reform, and the nature of migration that drives international remittance flows in Viet Nam. Credit markets are fragmented as households face different costs of borrowing due to the inefficient financial intermediation of capital stemming from the legacy of a centrally planned economy. This environment shaped the conceptual and empirical models used in this thesis to examine how changes in access to credit, differences in the cost of borrowing, and remittance flows affected household consumption, which has implications for the distribution of income and for poverty reduction.