Search results

This study explores how problem-based learning (PBL) programs can address Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via the higher education (HE) curriculum, teaching materials and relevant assessments, supporting learning at scale for HE institutions.

Employing SDGs and their indicators as the coding framework, our two-phase study evaluates the curriculum and teaching materials of seven PBL programs at a leading higher education institution (HEI). The first phase involved a content analysis to assess the degree of sustainability integration in 156 relevant courses. The second phase applied a semi-automated mapping protocol to analyze learning and teaching materials in 120 relevant courses.

The school aligns with 17 SDGs (100%), covering 94 indicators (55.62%). On average, each program within the school addresses over ten of these goals and incorporates more than 24 associated indicators. However, the study reveals an imbalance in the incorporation of SDGs, with some goals not yet deeply and comprehensively embedded in the curriculum. While there is a substantial focus on sustainability theories, the practical implications of SDGs in emerging countries, particularly through case studies and assessments, require significant enhancement.

Mapping SDGs allows HEIs to identify strengths and gaps in SDG integration, thereby improving the PBL approach to enhance student work readiness in sustainability-focused careers.

Through the lens of transformative learning theory, this study provides evidence of SDG integration into PBL curricula. It highlights a mapping methodology that enables HEIs to evaluate their sustainability readiness in curriculum, teaching materials and relevant assessments.

The purpose of this paper is to measure TFP growth and job reallocation in the Vietnamese manufacturing industry after the Doimoi period.

The study uses firm-level panel data from Vietnam’s annual enterprise survey data for 2000–2016 period in the Vietnamese manufacturing industry using Olley–Pakes static and dynamic productivity decomposition methods.

The aggregate productivity estimated from the WRDG method increased 2.323 percent, of which over 40 percent is due to the reallocation toward more productive firms. Olley–Pakes dynamic decomposition according to ownership, scale and industry shows that the contribution of private and state-owned firms and the contribution of small and medium firms and large firms to the TFP growth are 133, −33 percent, 58.56 and 41.44 percent, respectively. The within-firm productivity and net entry components are the main reasons for TFP growth rather than reallocation. The results show that the composition of the aggregate TFPs, estimated from WRDG, OP, LP and ACF, is correlated very high (over 80 percent) except for net entry components.

The major limitation of this study is that the authors compute an aggregate productivity index using actual employment-based shares (still misallocation in labor), rather than optimal employment-based shares (no misallocation in labor).

Job reallocation between industries is attracting attention in developing countries, especially transition economies. However, knowledge about job reallocation among industries is limited. This paper assesses the level of job reallocation among private and state-owned firms, small and medium firms and large firms in Vietnam.

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.

“The world needs science, science needs women” is the message given by UNESCO in the program for the development of women in science” (UNESCO, 2017). In Vietnam, women’s participation and achievements in scientific research is considered a great and important resource for industrialization and modernization. Even so, are there gender differences in scientific achievement in the social science research institutes in Vietnam? What factors influence the scientific achievement of female social researchers? The answers will be based on data from a 2017 survey with a sample of 756 researchers, of which 77.6% were female. The survey was conducted by the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, a leading, ministry-level national center for the social sciences in Vietnam. This chapter analyzed the scientific achievements of researchers through their position as principal investigators of research projects and their publications, and factors that may impact this. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of factors that may affect the scientific achievement of researchers found that gender differences in academic achievement in the social sciences in Vietnam was still prevalent. Female researchers’ scientific achievements were lower than those of their male counterparts. The contribution to science of Vietnamese female researchers was limited by many different factors; the most important were the academic rank of the researchers and gender stereotype that considered housework the responsibility of women.

This paper analyzes the effects of the monetary stance on the media's favorable (or otherwise) attitude to the State Bank of Vietnam's (SBV) monetary policy using monthly data from 2011 to 2021. Monetary stance is a multivariate index based on the growth rates of money supply and domestic credit. A large set of articles published in five Vietnam daily newspapers are utilized to construct a view of the media's favorableness to the monetary policy.

This paper uses hand-collected data from 211 articles published in five newspapers from December 2011 to September 2021 in order to examine the relationship between the monetary stance and the media's favorableness to monetary policy. Following the studies of He and Pauwels (2008) and Xiong (2012), the authors constructed a multivariate stance index to capture most of the important changes in the SBV's monetary policy stance.

The study's main findings are that a change in monetary stance from easing to neutral/tightening, or from neutral to tightening, is greatly appreciated by the media. The study's findings are robust, especially in terms of alternative measures of the media's favorableness and monetary policy variables.

These findings have important policy implications for implementing SBV's monetary policy.

The main contribution of this paper is that the authors are the first to study the nexus of multivariate monetary stance and the media's favorableness to a central bank's non-inflation-targeting mandate. In particular, the study’s findings confirm that the SBV's multivariate monetary stance affects the media's favorableness, whereas the effect of inflation is statistically insignificant.

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 purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cross-country characteristics on acquirers' target status choice in cross-border mergers and acquisitions across 41 emerging markets.

The paper first reviews the existing literature and develops the related hypotheses, in conjunction with the objectives of this paper. We then describe the data employed, variable measurement and examine the effects of cross-country characteristics on the acquirers' target status choice in cross-border mergers and acquisitions while controlling for firm-level and deal-specific characteristics. The paper continues to conduct the robustness check on cross-country determinants of target status choices using the difference independent variables rather than target country-level variables only.

This research found that the likelihood of a public firm acquired relative to private one is higher if the target firm is located in countries with stronger government quality, weaker economic freedom, better financial market development and lower cultural distance between the host and home countries. The results suggest that bidders actively assess cross-country characteristics as part of their acquisition planning.

Rather than commonly analysed determinants in the previous research such as firm- and deal-specific attributes, value creation and shareholder protection, this paper indicates that institutional environments and economic conditions are closely associated with acquisition risks and benefits and have direct influences on bidder firms' acquisition bidding planning and target choice decision-making.

This paper examines the effects of sub-national union coverage on the youth's labor market outcomes.

In the context of the private business sector in Vietnam, this study link individual labor market data with union coverage at provincial level in the period 2013–2016 to investigate the effects of sub-national union coverage on the youth's labor market outcomes. Contingent on the outcome variable, we use the OLS and probit model that control for diverse individual characteristics, year- and industry-fixed effects, and particularly control for selection bias in the labor market.

The empirical results show that the union coverage is positively associated with a wide range of the youth's labor market outcomes, including employment status, wage rate, work hour, and job formality. Also, the coverage is complementary to individual labor contract in determining the youth's wage rate.

Our empirical results indicate positive associations between union coverage and the youth's multi-dimensional labor market outcomes, which contribute to this young age cohort's smooth school-to-work transition, provided that the role of trade union is challenged both in developing and developed countries.

This study provides an in-depth study on the interplay between trade union and the youth's labor market outcomes that contributes to the literature of labor market institutions and youth employment policies in a dynamic transitional economy of Vietnam.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of climate change on some specific areas of agricultural production in Quang Nam Province, including assessing the possibility of losing agricultural land owing to sea level rise; assessing the impact on rice productivity; and, assessing the impact on crop water demand.

This study used the method of collecting and processing statistics data; method of analysis, comparison and evaluation; method of geographic information system; method of using mathematical model; and method of professional solution, to assess the impacts of climate change.

Evaluation results in Quang Nam Province show that, by the end of the 21st century, winter–spring rice productivity may decrease by 33%, while summer–autumn rice productivity may decrease by 49%. Under representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 scenario, water demand increases by 31.1% compared to the baseline period, of which the winter–spring crop increases by 28.4%, and the summer–autumn crop increased by 34.3%. Under RCP 8.5 scenario, water demand increases by 54.1% compared to the baseline period, of which the winter–spring crop increases by 46.7%, and the summer–autumn crop increased by 63.1%. The area of agricultural land likely to be inundated by sea level rise at 50 cm is 418.32 ha, and at 80 cm, it is 637.07 ha.

To propose adaptation solution to avoid the impacts of climate change on agriculture, it is necessary to consider about the impact on losing land for agriculture, the impact on rice productivity, assess the impact on crop water demand and other. The result of this assessment is useful for policymakers for forming the agriculture development plan.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effects of human resource management (HRM) practices on firm outcomes at the firm level in Vietnam.

The paper employs a fixed-effects framework for the estimation using a panel sample of manufacturing firms from small- and medium-sized enterprise surveys between 2009 and 2013.

The paper finds that, on average, a firm that provides the training for new workers gains roughly 13.7, 10 and 14.9 percent higher in output value per worker, value added per worker and gross profit per worker, respectively, than the counterpart. Moreover, an additional ten-day training duration for new employees on average leads to a 4.1 percent increase in output value per worker, a 3.0 percent rise in value added per worker and a 3.0 percent growth in gross profit per worker. The paper also uncovers that a marginal 10 percent of HRM spending results in about 2 and 1.6 percent rises in output value per worker and value added per worker, respectively.

Using the case of Vietnam, this paper shows the important roles of HRM practices in explaining firm outcomes.