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This paper is a dedication to Professor Ngo Van Long who introduced the idea of Kant–Nash equilibrium. The author extends this analysis to the study of adult and child labor markets.

This is a game theoretic analysis of the market for adult and child workers when some firms behave in the neoclassical Nashian way and some firms follow a Kantian social norm.

The presence of Kantian firms in the output market in addition to Nashian lowers industry output and labor demand. This raises the possibility that Kantian behavior in the output market could lower wages sufficiently and increase the incidence of child labor. If firms engage in Kantian behavior in the labor market by not hiring child workers, adult wage rises but could lower child wage as children if they work can only work for Nashian firms. When labor demand is sufficiently high, more Kantians could raise adult wage above subsistence and eliminate child labor supply.

This is the first paper to apply Kant–Nash equilibrium to the labor market. The result that Kantian behavior could have an unintended negative spillover effect in other markets is new. The paper keeps alive the ideas of Professor Long, which hopefully will stimulate further work and build on his ideas.

The authors estimated the hidden overhead (capital diversion or wasteful use of capital) of Vietnam state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The authors used a panel data set of 10,200 Vietnam SOEs observed over the period 2010–2018. The authors modeled and estimated the hidden overhead by using a stochastic production frontier. The hidden overhead parameter is modelled as the technical inefficiency in the production function.

Vietnam SOEs are very capital intensive. The hidden overhead (or the wasteful use of capital) is very high with an average rate of 69%.

Alternative estimation methods should be used to account for endogeneity in production inputs. Lack of comparison with the Vietnam private firms.

The paper proposes an original way to quantify hidden overhead (or capital diversion) in the Vietnam SOEs. The finding (a capital diversion rate of 69% on average) is astonishing. It calls for an urgent and profound reform of the Vietnam SOEs.

The principal aim of this paper is to review three basic theoretical growth models, namely the Harrod-Domar model, the Solow model and the Ramsey model, and examine their implications for economic policies.

The paper utilizes a positivist research framework that emphasizes the causal relationships between the variables in each of the three models. Mathematical methods are employed to formulate and examine the three models under study. Since the paper is theoretical, it does not use any empirical data although numerical illustrations are provided whenever they are appropriate.

The Harrod-Domar model explains why countries with high rates of saving may also enjoy high rate of economic growth. Both the Solow and Ramsey models can be used to explain the medium-income trap. The paper examines the impact of Covid shocks on the macroeconomy. While the growth rate can be recovered, it may not always possible to recover the output level.

For the Harrod-Domar model, the public spending decreases the private consumption at the period 1, but there is no change in the capital stock and hence the production in subsequent periods. For the Ramsey model with AK production function, both the private consumption and the outputs will be lowered. In both the Harrod-Domar and Ramsey models with Cobb-Douglas production function, if the debt is not high and the interest rate is sufficiently low, it is better to use public debt for production rather than for consumption. If the country borrows to recover the Total Factor Productivity after the Covid pandemic, both the Harrod-Domar and Ramsey models with Cobb-Douglas production function show that the rate of growth is higher for the year just after the pandemic but is the same as before the pandemic.

The economy can recover the growth rate after a Covid shock, but the recovery process will generally take many periods.

This paper focuses on economic implications and does not aim to examine social implications of policy changes or Covid-type shock.

The paper provides a comparison of three basic growth models with respect to public spending, public debts and repayments and Covid-type shocks.

The authors investigate the impact of standards compliance on the participation in the global value chain and labour value-added of Vietnam’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The authors use a three-period panel dataset of SMEs combined with Vietnam’s Provincial Competitiveness Index. The authors also use multiple econometric models; and with each model, the authors include all independent variables that are available from the study's data and that are suggested by the literature.

The authors find that standards compliance by Vietnam’s SMEs improved their participation in the global value chain via subcontracts with FDI multinational firms. The authors also find that standards compliance improved the value-added of labour in Vietnam’s SMEs, which is robust to the choice of econometric models.

The study's results suggest that better outcomes for firms and society will be possible if standards are recognised and respected.

This paper complements scant literature on the impact of standards compliance on global value chain participation via subcontracting work and labour value-added, especially in developing countries.

This paper attempts to develop a simple, static model of tax administration that is capable of explaining the widespread collusive petty tax administration corruption observed in developing countries.

This paper utilizes a positivist research framework and adopts a theoretical method of analysis, although secondary data will also be mentioned to support theoretical arguments whenever it is appropriate to do so.

A high rate of collusive tax corruption is inevitable in developing countries.

The model is static and needs to be extended into a dynamic model.

Traditional enforcement tools such as higher audits or a higher penalty regime against tax evasion do not work. Tax simplification can lessen the incidence of tax corruption.

Fighting tax corruption requires significant changes in the attitudes of taxpayers and tax auditors.

This paper combines the literature on Kantian economics and tax compliance in an innovative fashion.

This paper aims to focus on scrutinizing the economics of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Vietnam's rice production sector.

Using surveyed data from household rice producers, the smallest available production scale, the author delves into the economics of GHG emissions, constructs a data-driven bottom-up marginal abatement cost curve for Vietnam’s rice production, and evaluates the impacts of carbon pricing on production outputs and GHG emissions.

The author’s estimates reveal that the average profit earned per tonne of GHG emissions is $240/tCO2. Notably, the profit earning per tonne of GHG emissions varies substantially across producers, indicating significant opportunities for improvement among low-efficiency producers. The analysis suggests that a reasonable carbon price would yield a modest impact on the national rice output. The quantitative analysis also reaffirms that the primary driver of GHG emissions in Vietnam’s rice production stems from non-energy inputs and industrial processes rather than the utilisation of energy inputs, emphasizing the importance of improving cultivation techniques.

This research is original.

The authors characterize the conditions under which a country may eventually split and when it splits within an infinite horizon multi-stage differential game.

In contrast to the existing literature, the authors do not assume that after splitting, players will adopt Markovian strategies. Instead, the authors assume that while the splitting country plays Markovian, the remaining coalition remains committed to the collective control of pollution and plays open-loop.

Within a full linear-quadratic model, the authors characterize the optimal strategies. The authors later compare with the outcomes of the case where the splitting country and the remaining coalition play both Markovian. The authors highlight several interesting results in terms of the implications for long-term pollution levels and the duration of coalitions under heterogenous strategies as compared to Markovian behavior.

In this paper, the authors have illustrated the richness of the simplications of enlarging the set of strategies in terms of the emergence of coalitions, their duration and the implied welfare levels per player. Varying only three parameters (the technological gap, pollution damage and coalition payoff share distribution across players), the authors have been able to generate, among other findings, quite different rankings of welfare per player depending on whether the remaining coalitions after split play Markovian or stay precommited to the pre-splitting period decisions.

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether a Nash equilibrium of a two-country trading economy is symmetry-breaking or not.

The approach to tackle this topic is a theoretical treatment by the general equilibrium trade theory and game theory.

If each government's domestic policy serving private production is diminishing to the private production scale, the Nash equilibrium is not symmetry-breaking.

In the existing study of Chatterjee (2017), a similar result is derived by focusing on the properties of each country's GDP function. The authors, however, consider an economy where each country's PPF is strictly concave and show that the Nash equilibrium uniquely exists and this equilibrium is symmetry.

This study aims to estimate the pass-through rate of the increases in the excise tax and TCF tax on tobacco in Vietnam. This study seeks to shed light on how the tax burden is split between consumers and producers and inform policy discussions in the country. Using panel micro-level data collected from three waves of a nationwide retailer's survey, this study provides an evidence-based pass-through estimation for tobacco tax in Vietnam and contributes to the understanding of tax policy on smoking and smoking-related issues.

Following increases in the excise tax and TCF tax on tobacco in 2019, the differential effect of the tax hike on the “treatment group” (domestic cigarettes) versus the “control group” (illicit cigarettes) using a difference-in-difference (DID) analysis has been studied. The study utilized unique longitudinal retailers’ data on cigarettes prices in Vietnam from 2018 to 2019 to estimate the tax pass-through rate for some of the most popular factory-made cigarette brands.

This study found evidence of an over-shifting of cigarette taxes on smokers. Specifically, it discovered that the tax increase is absorbed more by low-priced brand smokers compared to premium brand users due to (1) the limited increase in prices under a pure ad valorem system and (2) the way the Vietnamese currency is denominated. Additionally, there is evidence of cushioning to mitigate price shock on consumers as the real prices increase gradually over the period of one year after the tax change.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to collect and analyze a unique panel micro-level data from three waves of a nationwide retailers’ survey, which captures the changes in marketing and pricing strategies of the tobacco industry in Vietnam before and after an increase in excise tax in 2019. The results of this study could be used as a reference for future policymakers in considering increasing taxes on tobacco.