Introducing the Regional Varieties of Asian Capitalism Approach to Lao PDR

This research note proposes the entry of the emerging body of knowledge on Varieties of Asian Capitalism into Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam. While geographers and economists have begun to study capitalist diversity in several Southeast Asian countries, former "Indo Chine" has so far been neglected. This seems to be an omission as economic reform in these three countries provides much scope for varieties of capitalism research. After an update on the latest theoretical insights this note introduces a research agenda focusing on capitalist institutions and its evolution in Lao PDR. Here, Savannakhet province in the southern part of the country is presented as a potential suitable research site, but it is hoped that both academics and policy-makers take up this agenda in order to increase our comparative knowledge of capitalist institutions and its potential to achieve poverty reduction in peripheral regions of Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam.