On the Short- and Medium-Term Effects of Formalisation: Panel Evidence from Vietnam

This paper analyses the consequences of formalisation on the performance of informal firms, using a panel dataset from Vietnam. We find that switching firms (before switching) have higher profit and value added compared to non-switching firms; suggesting heterogeneity. Becoming formal leads to an additional increase in switching firms’ profit and value added. The benefits of formalisation materialise in the short-term (one year) and persist in the longer-term (three or more years). These benefits run through various channels such as better access to powered equipment or higher business association membership; but not better access to credit.     

越南的农业革新

自1986年实行革新后,越南农业生产呈现出不断上升的良好发展势头,粮食自给有余,出口逐年增长.通过实行家庭承包制、建立庄园经济、重建新型合作社、科技兴农、搞多种经营等措施,越南的农业革新取得令人欣喜的成就.前进道路仍有困难,但只要政策符合客观实际,越南农业还有巨大的发展潜力.     

Ethnic minority development in Vietnam

This study examines the disparities in living standards between and among the different ethnic groups in Vietnam. Using data from the Vietnam Living Standards Surveys and 1999 Census, we show that ‘majority’ Kinh and Hoa households have substantially higher living standards than ‘minority’ households from Vietnam's 52 other ethnic groups. While the Kinh, Hoa, Khmer and Northern Highland Minorities benefited from economic growth in the 1990s, the position of the Central Highland Minorities stagnated. Decompositions show that even if minority households had the same endowments as Kinh households, this would close no more than a third of the gap in their per capita expenditures. While some ethnic minorities seem to be doing well out of a strategy of assimilating with the Kinh-Hoa majority, others groups are attempting to integrate economically while retaining distinct cultural identities, and a third group is largely being left behind by the growth process.     

越南加快国有企业改革进程

国有企业是越南社会主义制度的重要经济基础,是越南国民经济的支柱,控制着国民经济的关键行业和重要领域,长期以来为国家经济和社会发展做出了巨大贡献.但随着革新事业的推进,国有企业自身存在的问题及改革滞后的矛盾日益突出,引起越共全党和全国上下的普遍关注.2004年10月,越共中央政治局发出2004年第45号指示,决定加快推进国有企业改革进程,并提出具体措施和方向.这是越共中央政治局首次就国有企业改革问题发出专门指示,此举不仅表明越共中央加大力度深化国企改革的决心,也标志着越南国有企业改革进程将全面提速,进入关键的攻坚阶段.     

Impacts of Bribery in Healthcare in Vietnam

This study explores how bribery in the health sector is associated with people’s well-being and with universal health coverage. By using the data of Vietnam from 2011 and 2012, this study reveals a negative correlation between the prevalence of bribery and health outcomes and the health insurance coverage. Additionally, the results indicate that bribers feel neither cured of injury/disease nor satisfied with healthcare service quality. Furthermore, there is a significantly negative correlation between the belief of the necessity to give a bribe and the health insurance enrolment decision.     

Rural Roads and Local Market Development in Vietnam

We assess impacts of rural road rehabilitation on market development at the commune level in rural Vietnam and examine the geographic, community, and household covariates of impact. Double difference and matching methods are used to address sources of selection bias in identifying impacts. The results point to significant average impacts on the development of local markets. There is also evidence of considerable impact heterogeneity, with a tendency for poorer communes to have higher impacts due to lower levels of initial market development. Yet, some poor areas are also saddled with other attributes that reduce those impacts.     

Spatial Spillover Effects from Foreign Direct Investment in Vietnam

This paper investigates the role of inter-firm interaction and geographical proximity in the determination of productivity spillover effects from foreign to domestic firms. We developed an estimation approach using the Spatial Durbin model and applied this to a firm-level dataset from Vietnam from 2000–2005. We found that productivity spillovers diminished when the distance between foreign and domestic firms increases and that interactions among local firms amplify the spillovers. Within short distances, the presence of foreign firms creates positive backward, negative forward and horizontal spillovers. Based on the findings, several implications are extracted regarding promotion policy for foreign direct investment in developing countries.     

Gender and Corruption in Business

Are firms with female owners or managers less corrupt than other firms? We test this question using firm-level data on corruption, ownership, and management. We find that women in positions of influence are associated with less corruption: female owners are associated with a lower incidence of bribery and report smaller levels of bribery. Moreover, corruption is seen as less of an obstacle in companies where women are represented in top management. By providing evidence that women are associated with lower levels of corruption in business our research contributes to the literature on development, gender equality, and corruption.     

Agglomeration Effects: Productivity of the Informal Sector in Vietnam

This paper investigates agglomeration externalities on the productivity of informal household businesses in Vietnam. Although the paper finds heterogeneous impacts of agglomeration on the productivity of informal firms between urban and rural settings and across industries, it is found that technology transfers are not an agglomerative force for the informal sector of Vietnam. The disaggregation of local scale externalities into city types reveals that the highest developed cities in Vietnam may either be low-quality agglomeration or go beyond their optimal scale for the informal sector in some industries.     

论市场经济与越南社会主义的关系

关于社会主义与市场经济是否能够兼容,学界一直存在不同观点。该文从马克思、恩格斯、列宁等经典作家的理论出发,结合社会主义国家发展的历史进程,指出发展市场经济是越南这样的后发国家建立社会主义的必经之路。而发展什么样的市场经济,如何发展市场经济,则取决于每个国家和民族的历史条件和独特环境。该文分析了越南发展社会主义定向的市场经济的过程,研究概括了其基本特征,试图回答如下问题:越南要建立一个什么样的社会,政府应在此过程中发挥什么样的作用,各种经济成分之间的关系如何等。     

Formal and Informal Rural Credit in Four Provinces of Vietnam

This paper uses a survey of 932 rural households to uncover how the rural credit market operates in Vietnam. Households obtain credit through formal and informal lenders. Formal loans are almost entirely for production and asset accumulation, while informal loans are used for consumption smoothening. The determinants of formal and informal credit demand are distinct. While credit rationing depends on education and credit history, in particular, regional differences in the demand for credit are striking. A ‘one size fits all’ approach to credit policy in Vietnam would be inappropriate.     

Beneficiary Participation in Non-Governmental Development Organisations: A Case Study in Vietnam

Beneficiary participation in development projects has been an important topic of debate during the last decades. In the empirical research on the matter beneficiaries themselves are seldom, if ever, asked about their perceptions of participatory mechanisms in place. We present such a (case) study on the Vietnamese local office of a European non-governmental development organisation, also probing into other stakeholders’ perceptions (46 interviews in total). Our observations allow us to refine some aspects of the extant theoretical insights on beneficiary participation and representation, as well as to formulate some recommendations for organisations aiming at increasing beneficiary participation in their decision-making.     

越共推进民主政治建设的主要做法

自1986年全面确立革新路线以来，越南共产党在大力进行经济体制改革的同时，稳步推进政治体制改革，在民主政治建设的理论和实践上进行了一系列探索。特别是近年来，越共在推动民主政治建设方面出台了诸多举措。     

越南开始成为亚洲经济新星

通过近30年的发展,越南正以自己的特色表现创造着第二个"中国式奇迹".去年越南的经济增长率为8.4%,已经超过泰国、马来西亚、韩国和印度,跃居亚洲第二,仅次于中国.11月7日,世界贸易组织(WTO)总理事会召开特别会议,正式宣布接纳越南成为该组织第150个成员,至此,宣告了越南长达11年多的双边和多边贸易谈判最终结束.     

Vietnam: Assessing the achievements of Doi Moi

Following a decade of reform and the 1988–89 stabilisation programme, Vietnam appears well‐positioned to become a new East Asian ‘dragon’. Below, the main macroeconomic dimensions of the reform process are examined. In particular, improved terms of trade for food agriculture is seen as a key determinant of stabilisation; more generally, it is argued that the authorities have rightly given broad priority to macro‐stability over micro‐efficiency. While the process of institutional change is necessarily a lengthy one, rising domestic and foreign savings will help sustain rapid growth, mitigating any adverse distributional consequences of reform. The Vietnamese experience clearly contains lessons for other ‘market transition’ economies.     

继往开来的越共"十大"

越共“十大”被认为是越南革新开放二十年来最重要的一次党代会,此次会议的召开,无论对于推进越南本国的发展和稳定还是对于整个东南亚地区的继续迈步前进,都将具有重要的历史和现实意义。