An empirical analysis of the manufacuring sector in vietnam during the periods 2000-2006 with a particular emphasis on technical efficiency, trade reforms ad workplace injuries

This thesis investigates empirically the manufacturing sector in Vietnam during the period 2000-2006. The main objective is to provide a comprehensive analysis on the technical performance, and workplace safety of this sector. The analysis uses the sub-dataset for the manufacturing sector extracted from the annual Vietnam Enterprise Surveys for the period under consideration. Chapter one provides an overview of the economic renovation (commonly called Doi moi). The chapter reviews milestones in the Doi moi process and its consequences in terms of economic structural changes, trade, and investment. Chapter two describes the dataset used in the thesis and the construction of the key variables adopted in the subsequent chapters. Chapter three estimates technical efficiency in the Vietnam’s manufacturing sector. The chapter explores if, among other things, the estimates of technical efficiency obtained using the stochastic frontier approach are sensitive to the different distributional and econometric assumptions. Based on several test results, the chapter concludes that average manufacturing sector operated at 62 percent of its technical efficiency. Chapter four investigates empirically the determinants of technical efficiency in the Vietnam’s manufacturing sector using both mean and quantile regression approaches. Results suggested that types of ownership, feminization, and compliance of firms to labour market regulation are among important determinants of technical efficiency. Notably, there is a positive, albeit modest impact of trade liberalization on technical performance of the manufacturing sector and this impact is most pronounced for the least technically efficient firms. Chapter five focuses attention on workplace injuries in the manufacturing sector. As data on workplace injuries in Vietnam is very limited, a number of experiments was tried to find the most relevant estimation strategy. The chapter finally adopts a probit model and a simple OLS to inform determinants of workplace injuries. Results suggest that types of ownership and firm size are important factors that exert influences on workplace injuries reported. Interestingly, the foreign-invested sector was found to be the worst performer compared to the domestic counterparts in terms of technical efficiency and workplace safety. Drawing from these chapters, some policy conclusions, limitations of the current exercise, and outlines of possible agenda for future research in this area are discussed in the conclusion section.