Temporary migrants and gender housework division among left-behind household members

We examine whether Vietnamese migrant workers induce a shift in gender roles in housework division among the household members left behind. Using two waves of the Vietnamese Household Living Standard Survey (2006–2008), we apply the first-difference method and estimate a simple household fixed effects model with instrumental variables for robustness checking. We find that temporary female migrants are associated with a higher probability of undertaking housework by male members left behind and there is a reduction in the gender gap in terms of time spent on chores. However, we find little evidence for a similar reduction in the gender gap when the household size is altered for other reasons.     

The Korea-Vietnam trade and the bilateral exchange rate: Asymmetric evidence from commodity trade data

The contribution of the current article is to detect the asymmetric impact that exchange rate fluctuations have on Korea's trade with Vietnam. To this end, the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) process is applied to export and import data disaggregated by 25 commodities. We uncover that the ups and downs of exchange rates have an asymmetric impact on some, though not all, types of Korea's commodities exported to and imported from Vietnam in both the long- and short-run.     

Internet search intensity,liquidity and returns in emerging markets

Using a sample of listed companies in the Vietnam stock market from 2013 to 2018, this paper investigates the linkage between Internet search intenseness and stock returns and trading volume. The empirical results confirm the “price pressure hypothesis” that search intensity is positively associated with subsequent stock returns and trading volume. It also finds that the positive effects on stock returns are not temporary but remain for the long term although some reversals occur. The results show that the effects of search intensity on stock returns are higher for large stocks than for small stocks. The findings also reveal that stocks that attract more attention from the public are exposed to higher market risk. These findings have not been documented in the literature so they enrich the information on the relationship between Internet search intenseness and stock market returns, especially for emerging markets where Internet user numbers are sharply increasing.     

Corruption as Infrastructure: Rendering the New Saigon Global

Corruption is regularly treated as a barrier to infrastructure, development and growth. However, in Saigon, corruption itself has become an infrastructure in Vietnam's late-socialist urban transformation. This infrastructure facilitates not only growth in the form of transnational investment, property speculation and construction, but allows for different kinds of planning and development practice as well. Perceptions about corruption in Vietnam, and in Saigon specifically, shape market and planning practices that structure the terms on which interested parties from abroad and internally speculate upon and ultimately develop urban projects. This is not a static formulation of corruption. Rather, corruption and the various political and policy responses to it constantly shape how brokers, developers and financiers renegotiate how the city becomes a knowable object for investment, legible to the calculations of both risk and reward used by global investors as well as to those who enact the embedded bureaucratic, legal and political practices that create Saigon's built environment. In this article I argue that different definitions and policy responses to corruption in effect create variable ways of seeing the city (as well as modes of being seen) that have an impact on the material realities of the metropolis—the types of connections produced with transnational finance, the legal and regulatory structure under which urbanization unfolds, and the types of players, firms and officials involved.     

Local institutions,external finance and investment decisions of small businesses in Vietnam

This study investigates the impacts of local institutions, external finance, and their joint effects on firm investment in Vietnam. Investment decisions are classified into two categories: fixed asset investment and non-fixed asset investment. Analysing a set of 1.3 million firm-year observations of businesses in Vietnam (2006–2016), we find evidence that local institutions (both formal and informal) positively influence fixed asset investment but negatively affect non-fixed asset investment. Also, we find that informal loans are positively associated with both types of firm investment while bank loans are negatively associated with both types of firm investment. More importantly, we find that the quality of local institutions is able to moderate firms’ external financing behaviour, leading to increased investment values.     

Does awareness about land tenure security (LTS) increase investments in agriculture? Evidence from rural households in Vietnam

Although previous studies have shown the importance to agricultural investments of awareness about land tenure security (LTS), to date, little quantitative evidence has been published regarding the effects of awareness about LTS. This study contributes to the current research by showing the causal effect on agricultural investments of awareness about LTS. In detail, we examine whether awareness about the increase in the duration of agricultural land-use rights improves farmers’ investments in agriculture. Under the new land law passed in November 2013 in Vietnam, the usage duration of annual cropland and aquaculture land increased significantly from 20 years to 50 years, which makes Vietnam a compelling case study for testing this hypothesis. We use panel data from the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) collected in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016. The balanced panel data include 1834 households. Difference-in-difference with fixed effects (DID-FE) is employed to estimate the causal impacts. We find that awareness about the increase in the duration of agricultural land-use rights increases investments in irrigation/soil conservation/water conservation and the adoption of organic fertilizer, which supports the positive impacts of awareness about LTS on sustainable investments.     

Managing employee performance in an emerging economy: perceptions of Vietnamese managers

This qualitative study explores employee performance management (PM) in Vietnam from the perspectives of Vietnamese managers in three case study organizations: a state-owned enterprise, a joint venture and a private Vietnamese company. Findings suggest that western PM practices and techniques are being utilized in all three organizations and that PM is seen as an essential and strategic component of human resource management policy. These findings suggest an increasing awareness of PM in Vietnamese enterprises and a desire to improve competitiveness by developing a highly skilled and high-performing workforce.     

Changing food consumption patterns in rural and urban Vietnam: Implications for a future food supply system

Rapid income growth and urbanisation could significantly change the composition of the food basket in many emerging economies. This study estimates a demand system, including 15 major food items in Vietnam, with multiyear household survey data. We find a large variation in the estimated price elasticities (–0.05 to –0.88) and expenditure elasticities (–0.16 to 2.56). Food types, urban status and income groups can explain this variation. We also find that the staple food, rice, is already an inferior good for rich urban households in Vietnam. Moreover, food preferences are evolving away from rice but towards animal proteins (fish, pork, chicken, eggs and milk), fruits and vegetables, irrespective of urban status and income groups. As the Vietnam economy continues to grow with a doubling of gross domestic product (GDP) in the next decade, per capita rice consumption in both urban and rural areas and across different income groups will continue to decline, whereas demand for other high‐value products will rise. Thus, government policy should focus on encouraging demand‐oriented food production. In addition, crop diversification at the farm level needs to improve substantially to meet the rising demand for these food products due to income growth and urbanisation.     

A Participatory Simulation to Facilitate Farmers' Adoption of Livestock Feeding Systems Based on Conservation Agriculture in the Uplands of Northern Vietnam

In the mountain areas of northern Vietnam, extensive husbandry of large-ruminants is limited by the lack of natural forage. Since 2000, the Mountain Agrarian System Program has been concerned with this issue and has evaluated technical alternatives aimed at sustainable integration of crop-livestock systems. One alternative consists of feeding systems for largeruminants based on cropping systems with plant cover. Diffusion of information about the new system is supported by a set of interactive communication tools for use between farmers and researchers. A participatory simulation method was developed that combines a compartmental model of the village territory with five technical innovations. Farmers simulate the adoption of the innovations they choose among food-forage cropping systems in rotation or in association, and urea-treated straw. They evaluate the quantity of forage that can be grown for their herd using the chosen set of techniques.

Simulations revealed farmers' constraints and objectives in adopting sustainable cropping systems on the hillsides while maintaining a small animal husbandry system. The results obtained by each farmer provide a useful basis for discussion about the implementation of innovation. This participatory simulation method could be more widely used to facilitate the diffusion of innovations such as integrating livestock feeding systems with conservation cropping practices.     

The value of plant genetic diversity to resource-poor farmers in Nepal and Vietnam

Genetic resources for food and agriculture are the biological basis of world food and nutrition security; and they directly or indirectly support the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people. Genetic diversity gives a species or a population the ability to adapt to changing environments. For resource-poor farmers, adaptive animal breeds, crop varieties and cultivars adapted to particular micro-niches, stresses or uses are the main resources available to maintain or increase production and provide a secure livelihood. The economic value of genetic diversity for productivity and yield traits is discussed in the literature. However, it is difficult to value many other aspects of agricultural biodiversity as these have both direct and indirect values in terms of qualitative traits such as food, nutrition and environmental uses that include adaptation to low input conditions, co-adaptive complexes, yield stability and the consequent reduction of risk, specific niche adaptation, and in meeting socio-cultural needs. Together, the direct and indirect values of genetic resources for resource-poor farmers are expressed in a range of options in the form of the crop varieties and species they use for managing changing environments.

The value of genetic diversity to resource-poor farmers is seldom captured by markets or addressed by the international research agenda. This paper presents lessons learned from our work over 5–10 years in the Asia and Pacific Ocean (APO) region on participatory crop improvement, home gardens and on-farm management of agricultural biodiversity. The lessons illustrate how farmers adapt genetic resources to suit local environmental conditions. The paper focuses on the value of genetic diversity of selected crop species to meet people's food and other needs. Genetic diversity valued by resource-poor farmers is often maintained, selected and exchanged by local social seed networks. Identification of such genetic resources and their custodians is important if international agricultural research is to contribute to the reduction of poverty. The paper highlights some good practices from case studies that illustrate how such genetic resources could be exploited by informal research and development strategies or participatory plant breeding or for marketing value-added products.