Sources of productivity growth in Vietnam: Three essays
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis examines the sources of productivity growth in Vietnam, a developing country that has been transitioning from a centrally-planned economy to a more market-oriented one since 1986. Following the introduction, which sets the motivation and scope of the study, the thesis is organised into three core chapters, composed of self-contained articles. The first two core chapters focus on the within-firm determinants of productivity, namely the persistence of export activities and the transition into the formal business sector. The third core chapter investigates the between-firm (mis)allocation of capital that impacts aggregate productivity. The final chapter summarises the main findings and draws conclusions. Chapter Two examines the relationship between export and firm learning, with evidence provided on the learning mechanisms of exporters in Vietnam during the period 2010 to 2017. Using a dynamic panel data model, estimated by the generalised method of moments technique, the paper reveals opposite patterns of learning between exporters who pursue their export activities persistently and intermittent exporters whose export is merely a temporary activity. The former experience a U-shaped pattern of ex-post productivity, while the latter exhibit an inverted U-shaped pattern. The paper also finds that compared with intermittent exporters, persistent exporters are more likely to receive technology transfer from foreign buyers and are more likely to invest in technology, infrastructure and staff training in order to meet the requirements of export contracts. These findings help explain why previous studies that treated exporters as a homogeneous group tend to find ambiguous evidence of learning by exporting. Chapter Three examines the transition of Vietnam's informal household businesses into formal firms and its impacts upon firm-level productivity and incurred informal costs. Based on a panel dataset of formal and informal firms during 2007-2015, the paper employ…
abstract: This thesis examines the sources of productivity growth in Vietnam, a developing country that has been transitioning from a centrally-planned economy to a more market-oriented one since 1986. Following the introduction, which sets the motivation and scope of the study, the thesis is organised into three core chapters, composed of self-contained articles. The first two core chapters focus on the within-firm determinants of productivity, namely the persistence of export activities and the transition into the formal business sector. The third core chapter investigates the between-firm (mis)allocation of capital that impacts aggregate productivity. The final chapter summarises the main findings and draws conclusions. Chapter Two examines the relationship between export and firm learning, with evidence provided on the learning mechanisms of exporters in Vietnam during the period 2010 to 2017. Using a dynamic panel data model, estimated by the generalised method of moments technique, the paper reveals opposite patterns of learning between exporters who pursue their export activities persistently and intermittent exporters whose export is merely a temporary activity. The former experience a U-shaped pattern of ex-post productivity, while the latter exhibit an inverted U-shaped pattern. The paper also finds that compared with intermittent exporters, persistent exporters are more likely to receive technology transfer from foreign buyers and are more likely to invest in technology, infrastructure and staff training in order to meet the requirements of export contracts. These findings help explain why previous studies that treated exporters as a homogeneous group tend to find ambiguous evidence of learning by exporting. Chapter Three examines the transition of Vietnam's informal household businesses into formal firms and its impacts upon firm-level productivity and incurred informal costs. Based on a panel dataset of formal and informal firms during 2007-2015, the paper employ…
author: Le, Phan
language: en_AU
date published: 2022
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:35Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/267416