Under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries responded with various trade measures to prevent shortages of essential goods and ensure product quality and safety. COVID-19 trade measures were used to facilitate or restrict trade performance across countries, then increase or...

Does financial health shore up firm productivity? This paper empirically investigates this question and presents productivity as another driving factor in translating financial development into real economic progress. Our empirical framework employs Levinsohn and Petrin's (2003) semi-parametric...

This paper examines the bidirectional causality between innovation and internationalization in the context of developing countries. Using a dynamic bivariate probit model and adopting a broad definition of internationalization, this paper analyzes these issues using a panel dataset of small and...

The paper analyzes the link between human capital and firm-level productivity in five Asian countries. It draws on a dataset of over 4,000 enterprises and considers both the prior educational attainment of workers and in-service training programs of enterprises. Differences between small,...

Viet Nam's energy sector has made considerable strides in recent years in achieving high percentage of nationwide electrification and a relatively diversified energy mix that is dominated by hydropower, followed by gas and coal. However, sustaining those achievements including addressing...

Financial literacy is gaining increasing importance as a policy objective in many countries. However, internationally comparable information on financial literacy is still scarce. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development International Network on Financial Education (OECD/INFE)...

Access to credit is still one of the greatest obstacles to the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Viet Nam, and, to date, only 39% of SMEs have bank loans. SMEs' loans account for 22% of the total bank lending for the overall economy, whereas SMEs constitute 97% of the total...

This paper examines the surge of imports from the PRC to Viet Nam from 2000 to 2014 in order to evaluate the effects of increased exposure to trade with the PRC on income inequality and household welfare in Viet Nam. Using household level data from the Viet Nam Household Living Standard Survey...

Market-oriented reforms, such as liberalizing trade and encouraging foreign direct investment, can generate large efficiency gains for a country. However, there is also concern that lower-skilled workers are increasingly being replaced by technology and that more globalized markets are harming...