The persisting legacies of imperial elites among contemporary top-ranked Vietnamese politicians

This study investigated how the legacies of Vietnamese elites continue to affect top-ranked politicians in Vietnam. We therefore compared a list of elites who passed the imperial examination (1075–1919) at the national level with a list of currently active Vietnamese topranked politicians (1930–2020) by matching their home districts. We used the average distance from each district to imperial test venues as instrumental variables for estimating possible connections at the district level. Results showed strong and persistent imperial legacies based on these home districts. This suggests the existence of persistent transmissions via informal institutions and channels of home favoritism