Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam

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Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam provides a comprehensive analytic contribution to a crucial topic within development economics. Based on fifteen years of continued data collection and research efforts it brings together nine up-to-date studies on micro, small, and medium enterprise (SME) development in a coherent framework to help persuade national and international policymakers of the need to take the international call for a data revolution seriously.

This edited volume provides an in-depth evaluation of the development of private sector formal and informal manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam over the past decade, combining a unique primary data source with the best panel data and analytical tools available. It generates a comprehensive understanding of the impact of business risks, credit access, institutional characteristics, and government policies, and makes available a set of materials and studies of use to academics, students, and development practitioners interested in an integrated approach to the study of growth, private sector development, and the microeconomic analysis of SME development in a fascinating developing country.

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam serves as a lense through which other countries, and the international development community at large, may wish to approach the massive task of pursuing a meaningful data revolution as an integral element of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

John Rand, Professor of Development Economics, University of Copenhagen; and Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER,Finn Tarp, Professor of Development Economics, University of Copenhagen; and Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER

John Rand is a professor at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen. He is also Non-Resident Research Fellow with UNU-WIDER. His research centres around the microeconomics of development with a focus on enterprise behaviour and dynamics. He has published widely in the fields of development economics and industrial policy in developing countries.


Finn Tarp is Professor at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) and Coordinator of the UCPH Development Economics Research Group (DERG). Director of UNU-WIDER from 2009-18, and now a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of UNU-WIDER. Professor Tarp is a leading international expert on development strategy and foreign aid, with an interest in poverty, income distribution and growth, micro- and macroeconomic policy and modelling, agricultural sector policy and planning, household/enterprise development, and economic adjustment and reform as well as climate change, sustainability, and natural resources. He has published widely in leading economics and development journals and books by international academic publishers.

1. Introduction, John Rand and Finn Tarp
2. The Viet Nam SME data 2005-15, Hanna Berkel, John Rand, Finn Tarp, and Neda Trifkovic
PART I: CREDIT ACCESS AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
3. Capital allocation, credit access, and firm growth, Christina Kinghan, Carol Newman, and Conor O'Toole
4. The interaction of institutional quality and human capital in shaping the dynamics of capital structure, Enrico Santarelli and Hien Thu Tran
5. How important are management practices for the productivity of small and medium enterprises?, Axel Demenet and Quynh Hoang
PART II: POLITICAL CONNECTIONS, INSTITUIONAL QUALITY AND INNOVATION
6. Are politically connected firms less constrained in credit markets?, John Rand
7. Why do household businesses stay informal?, Thi Bich Tran and Hai Anh La
8. Slack resources and innovation in Vietnamese SMEs: a behavioural, stewardship, and institutional perspective, Tam Thanh Nguyen and Chieu Duc Trinh
PART III: CERTIFICATION, WORKING CONDITIONS AND UNION MEMBERSHIP
9. Certification and business risk, Neda Trifkovic
10. Pecuniary returns to working conditions, Christophe J. Nordman and Smriti Sharma
11. Does union membership pay off? Evidence from Vietnamese SMEs, Nina Torm
12. Conclusion, John Rand and Finn Tarp