Policy In Vietnam Research Articles

Dividend policy and earnings quality in Vietnam

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between dividend policy and earnings quality of Vietnamese listed firms. Design/methodology/approach The sample includes firms listed on Vietnam stock exchange during the period between 2010 and 2016. Two measures of earnings quality are the annual firm-specific absolute value of residuals from Dechow and Dichev’s (2002) model and from Dechow and Dichev (2002) as modified by McNichols’s (2002) model. The firms’ dividend policy is captured by dividend paying status. This is a dummy variable that takes the value of 1 if the firm pays dividends and 0 otherwise. In addition, dividend yield and dividend payout ratio, which are continuous variables, are also used in this paper as alternative proxies for dividend policy. Findings Using panel data analysis, this paper documents that dividend payers have higher earnings quality than dividend non-payers. Dividends are an indicator of earnings quality. These findings are consistent with prior studies. After controlling for variables that may be related to earnings quality as well as for the year and industry fixed effects, this relation remains unchanged. In addition, this result is also robust after controlling for firm fixed effects. Originality/value This paper offers the empirical evidence on the relation between dividend policy and earnings quality in Vietnam, which is a frontier market.

Hybrid Outcomes of Payments for Ecosystem Services Policies in Vietnam: Between Theory and Practice

ABSTRACTVietnam has had a national Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) policy in place since 2010, which transfers money for forest protection from water and energy users to households who live in upland watersheds. However, despite a loose resemblance to general Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) principles, implementation in Vietnam differs strongly from a theoretical ideal, and has a number of unique features, including: strong state involvement in transactions; no use of markets to set payments; poor definition and monitoring of ecosystem services; and the adoption of non‐conditional incentives that strongly resemble livelihood subsidies for poor rural areas. The form that PES takes in Vietnam has been shaped by institutional histories of forest management that have envisioned a strong role for the state and for financial transfers to the rural uplands. At the same time, PES has also been influenced by active engagement and agency of central and local government actors, and local payment recipients, and key areas in which they have impacted PES design include shared governance and more equitable benefit distribution models. These institutional priorities and local values that have shaped PES policy and implementation in Vietnam have led to a hybrid model, full of contradictions and compromises, that neither fits a classical definition nor resembles neoliberal conservation outcomes, and whose success is difficult to judge.

A Comparative Study of the Inclusive Education Policy in Vietnam and Malaysia: Proposed Solutions for Sustainable Development Education in Vietnam

The main aim of this study is to analyse and compare the policies of inclusive education for handicapped people in general, and children with disabilities in particular. It focused on inclusive education for children with disabilities in Vietnam and Malaysia. The study has also highlighted the challenges and issues of inclusive education for children with disabilities in Vietnam and has compared with Malaysia. It has eventually proposed the solutions to the sustainable development of inclusive education for children with disabilities in Vietnam.

Some recommendations for developing Vietnam’s foreign language education policy in the era of the fourth industrial revolution

Foreign language education in Vietnam is currently receiving strong support from the authorities, the people and the learners. In recent years, with specific and practical policies, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam has helped improve the foreign language proficiency of Vietnamese youth than before. However, during the implementation process, the results did not reach the set goals. Foreign language proficiency of newly graduated students is not enough to meet the job requirements. This article presents some limitations of the current foreign language teaching policy in Vietnam and give some recommendations to help build a highly effective foreign language policy.

An exploration of students\u2019 voices on the English graduation benchmark policy across Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam

Despite the wide implementation of English graduation benchmark policy in Vietnam, students’ voices on this one-size-fits-all policy have still been under-researched and under-represented. The purpose of this research, therefore, is twofold. The first is to examine whether any differences actually exist among Northern, Central and Southern Vietnamese students’ voices on the policy because these three regions represent heterogeneous characteristics ranging from cultures to English learning conditions to socio-economic backgrounds. The second is to investigate how these students at elementary, intermediate and upper intermediate levels perceive the policy. Drawing a sample of 902 students in these three regions, the study adopted a quantitative approach in the form of a questionnaire survey. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Hochberg’s GT2 post hoc tests yielded significant differences in students’ voices on the ‘Benefits’ and ‘Anxiety’ factors. Following the English proficiency levels in each region, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and the Bonferroni method also showed variations in students’ voices on the ‘Benefits’, ‘Anxiety’ and ‘Test-oriented learning’ factors. The findings hope to give dissenting voices to stakeholders including the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), policy makers, higher education institutions (HEIs) and teachers to adjust the policy and come up with innovative pedagogical strategies.

Complete Genome Sequences of Classical Swine Fever Virus Subgenotype 2.1 and 2.2 Strains Isolated from Vietnamese Pigs.

Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) strains ND20 and HY78 were detected from infected pigs in the Xuan Truong-Nam Dinh and Hung Yen provinces in North Vietnam in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The most prevalent CSFV subgenotypes in Vietnam are 2.1 and 2.2, and these two complete genome sequences will help the CSFV prevention policy in Vietnam. In particular, subgenotype 2.2 (ND20 strain) has been reported less worldwide, so it is worth sharing information about this subgenotype.

Couples HIV testing and immediate antiretroviral therapy for serodiscordant HIV-positive partners: Translating evidence into programme in Vietnam.

Injection drug use and heterosexual transmission from male key populations to their female partners have been the dominant modes of HIV transmission in Vietnam. A demonstration project was conducted to offer immediate antiretroviral therapy (ART) (regardless of CD4 cell count) to HIV-seropositive partners in serodiscordant couples. During March–December 2013, couples HIV testing and counselling (HTC) and immediate ART were offered in two drug use-affected provinces. Of 256 couples receiving couples HTC, 146 (57%) were serodiscordant; 134 (92%) seropositive partners initiated ART irrespective of CD4 cell count. Of these, 86% were male; 57% reported ever using illicit drugs; median CD4 cell count before ART initiation was 374 cells/mm3. Consistent condom use was reported by 58, 70 and 71% among HIV-positive partners at months 0, 3 and 12. At 12 months after ART initiation, 119 (89%) HIV-positive partners were retained in care; 96 (95% of those tested) achieved viral suppression (<1000 copies/ml). Uptake of immediate ART and viral suppression among those initiating ART were high, paving the way for ART regardless of CD4 cell count as national policy in Vietnam.

Assessing the price and output effects of monetary policy in Vietnam: evidence from a VAR analysis

ABSTRACTUsing monthly data, we perform a vector-autoregressive analysis to measure the effects of monetary policy on the Vietnamese economy. We concentrate our attention on the period following the introduction of the Law on Central Bank in January 1998 (which brought the national monetary policy and its objectives in line with international practices). Contrary to previous studies on Vietnam, we find evidence suggesting that monetary policy (through the manipulation of interest rates) is an effective policy tool in stabilizing prices. However, credit growth tends to induce inflationary pressures. In addition, we find that an expansion of broad money supply leads to an increase in industrial production.

Smoke-free environment policy in Vietnam: what did people see and how did they react when they visited various public places?

SummaryIntroductionSince Vietnam has signed WHO framework on tobacco control (FCTC) in 2003 and has issued tobacco control law in 2013, there has been little research concerning about what impacts smoke-free regulations have had on public compliance. The objective of this study was to assess public exposure to secondhand smoke and reaction toward smoke-free policy regulations in Vietnam and the associated factor.MethodsUsing the design of GATS (Global Adult Tobacco Survey), a nationally representative sample of 8,996 adults were approached for data collection. Logistic regression was used to examine the associated factor.ResultsThe study revealed that the prevalence of respondents exposed to secondhand smoke was much higher in bars/café/tea shops (90.07%) and restaurants (81.81%) than in any other public places, universities (36.70%), government buildings (31.12%), public transport (20.04%), healthcare facilities (17.85%) and schools (15.84%). 13.23% of respondents saw smokers violate smoke-free regulations. Among those who saw them violate smoke-free regulations, just one-third cautioned them to stop smoking. Strikingly, a higher rate of cautioning smokers to stop smoking was observed among the older, married, and better educated respondents. Respondents who were married, better educated and in lower economic status were more likely to remind smokers to stop smoking.ConclusionsThe study has called for strengthening two of the six MPOWER (Monitor, Protect, Offer, Warn, Enforce and Raise) components of the tobacco free initiative introduced by WHO, Monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies and Protecting people from tobacco smoke.

THE PATENTED DRUGS UTILIZATION: A STUDY AT NGUYEN DINH CHIEU HOSPITAL IN BEN TRE PROVINCE FROM 2011 TO 2017

Objective: With their new and efficacious active ingredients, patented drugs have important roles in offering high-quality healthcare. However, huge cost-related barriers in accessing patented drugs along with the availability of low-cost bioequivalent generics have great impact on drugs policy in Vietnam. To understand situation of patented drugs utilization at hospitals for a certain period, this pilot study was conducted at Nguyen-Dinh-Chieu Hospital in Ben-Tre Province.
 Methods: The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on the retrospective data of all patented drugs used at Nguyen-Dinh-Chieu Hospital in Ben-Tre Province from 2011-2017. Characteristics of drugs utilization were described by frequency and percentage of drugs quantities and costs. Criteria for the description were as follows: active ingredient, route of administration, therapeutic class and manufacturing country. Data were extracted from the hospital information system and were processed by R software.
 Results: From 2011 to 2017, there were 212 patented drugs used which related to 145 active ingredients and 20 therapeutic classes. 88% were single active ingredient drugs and 49% were oral drugs. Antimicrobial and cardiovascular drugs represented the largest number of drugs and the highest cost. 79% of patented drugs were manufactured by companies in Europe and the majority came from France and Germany.
 Conclusion: This study provided initial information about the utilization of patented drugs during a long period of time at a Vietnamese hospital. The understanding gained will aid medical managers in assessment and adjustment of the drugs list, thus, optimizing the hospital budget and the equity in access to drugs within communities.

Vietnamese industrial development: following Washington on the road to Beijing

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the main features of the Vietnamese economic transition and industrial development pattern analyzing the evolution of the industrial policy formulation in the light of the changes in the country’s productive specialization and competitive position in the international division of labor. The authors also aim at stressing the role exerted by different external paradigm of influence on the Vietnamese policy making and the function of selectivity as an instrument to upgrade the competitiveness of the Vietnamese production system. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides a descriptive analysis of the Vietnamese recent economic trends and structural transformation dynamics. It realizes a literature review concerning the academic debate on the role and the effects of industrial policy in Vietnam identifying a categorization between different theoretical perspectives. In addition, it implements an in-depth analysis of the main industrial planning strategies promoted by the government investigating the evolution of the lines of the country’s economic policy agenda. On the basis of the previous analyses, the paper draws out some conclusions about the application of selective criteria in Vietnamese industrial policy interventions. Findings An in-depth examination of the planning prescriptions suggests that the Vietnamese government has undertaken a pronounced paradigm change in the course of last 15 years. The Vietnamese planning approach displays a shift toward a systematic and extended vision concerning the role of industrial policy, which result to be in clear discontinuity with respect to the market-friendly approach supported by Washington institutions. Nevertheless, this configuration outlines several limits characterizing the Vietnamese planning activity, connected to the lack of transparency and efficiency of the governance mechanisms that risk to undermine the effectiveness of the upgrading policies. Originality/value The paper focuses on Vietnam, an emerging economy in transition whose development trajectory has been characterized by peculiar economic and policy dynamics. The hybrid character of the government policy-making approach makes it difficult to identify univocal interpretations concerning the country’s industrial development dynamics and the resulting policy implications. In this perspective, the analysis has shed light on the mechanisms conditioning the formulation of industrial policy in Vietnam, focusing on the external influences exerted on its definition and on the domestic interactions associated to its implementation.

Green Economic Development Policy in Vietnam in the Context of Global Climate Change

Green Economic Development Policy in Vietnam in the Context of Global Climate Change

Evaluation of Education Policy Implementation in Vietnam

The public policy evaluation receives the most concern from different public policy actors. The article is represented for the evaluation of education policy implementation in Vietnam. The implementation evaluation concentrated on the education policy objective and policy solutions and their instruments under the policy conditions which are the point of views of the political party and policy actors. As a result of the policy implementation evaluation, it supports for the policy change to enhance the implementation of education policy in Vietnam. Some of findings are really interesting for developing countries in the education policy such as choosing optimal policy solutions and appropriate policy instruments.

Variation in Access to Safe Drinking Water across Different Countries: An Explanatory Framework

Building upon extensive field interviews with past and current public officials from domestic agencies and international organizations who are involved in safe drinking water policy in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea, the research identifies and clarifies the causal mechanisms behind the different rates of expansion in access to safe drinking water among these five countries. It then examines how well theories in public administration, particularly with emphasis on theoretical frameworks in implementation scholarship, help capture and explain these mechanisms. Both strengths and weaknesses of public administration theory are examined where efforts to improve existing frameworks are suggested with their merger with theories from comparative politics. This opens the discussion on how public administration scholars should be involved in addressing and offering insights and advice to tackle the outstanding global challenge of 663 million people still living without access to safe drinking water.

Policy Process in Higher Education: The Roles of Higher Education Institutions

In the policy process of higher education, the higher education institutions not only play a role in the policy making process, but also are directly affected by the policies toward building quality culture in their organizations. From this perspective, the paper uses the policy cycle model combined with the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) of Kingdon (1984) and the quality culture model of the European Union Association (EUA) in order to analyze, clarify and propose groups of solutions to enhance the critical role of higher education institutions in policy process.
 Keywords
 Policy entrepreneurs; quality culture; multiple streams framework
 References
 [1] Viennet, Romane, and Beatriz Pont. "Education Policy Implementation: A Literature Review and Proposed Framework. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 162." OECD Publishing (2017). [2] Howells, J., R. Ramlogan, and S. L. Cheng, The role, context and typology of universities and higher education institutions in innovation systems: A UK perspective, Discussion Papers and Project Reports, Impact of Higher Education Institutions on Regional Economics: A Joint Research Initiative, 2008.[3] Dill, David D, and Maarja Soo, Academic quality, league tables, and public policy: A cross-national analysis of university ranking systems, Higher education 49.4: 495-533, 2005.[4] Kraft, Michael E., and Scott R. Furlong. Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives. Sage, 2012.[5] Kingdon, John W, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, 2nd edition, New York and London, Longman, 2003.[6] Weick, Karl E, The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd ed, New York, Random House, 1979.[7] Feldman, Martha S, Order without Design: Information Production and Policy Kaking, Vol. 231, Stanford University Press, 1989.[8] March, James G, Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen, Simon and Schuster, 1994.[9] Wilson, James Q, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It, Basic Books, 1989.[10] Chow, Anthony, Understanding policy change: multiple streams and national education curriculum policy in Hong Kong, Journal of Public Administration and Governance 4.2 (2014) 49.[12] Zhou, Nan, and Feng Feng, Applying Multiple Streams Theoretical Framework to college matriculation policy reform for children of migrant workers in China, Public Policy and Administration Research 4.10 (2014) 1.[12] Ha, Bui Thi Thu, Tolib Mirzoev, and Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, Shaping the health policy agenda: the case of safe motherhood policy in Vietnam, International journal of health policy and management 4.11 (2015) 741.[13] Kane, Sumit, The Health Policy Process in Vietnam: Going Beyond Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Theory: Comment on “Shaping the Health Policy Agenda: The Case of Safe Motherhood Policy in Vietnam”, International journal of health policy and management 5.7 (2016) 435.[14] European University Association, Quality Culture in European Countries: A Bottom-Up Approach, EUA Publications, 2006. [15] Liên hiệp các hội khoa học và kỹ thuật Việt Nam, Bản kiến nghị đề xuất một số biện pháp nhằm tiến tới cải cách triệt để và toàn diện nền giáo dục VN, 2005.[16] Bingham, Lisa Blomgren, Tina Nabatchi, and Rosemary O'Leary, The New Governance: Practices and Processes for Stakeholder and Citizen Participation in the Work of Government, Public Administration Review 65.5 (2005) 547.

The territorial structure and the territorial policy in Vietnam in the 21st century

The paper aims to identify the characteristics of Vietnam's territorial structure including regional development trends, national development progress, and local development challenges. Then, it will exploit the territorial policy of the nation including the trajectory of territorial policy since the 1980s and the enforcement of these policies under local governments. It not only contributes a holistic perception on territorial structure but also supplies a historical review on regional development policy since Doimoi1 in Vietnam.

Exchange Rate Policy and Macroeconomic Stability in Vietnam

Exchange Rate Policy and Macroeconomic Stability in Vietnam

Non-commercial surrogacy among close relatives in Vietnam: policy and ethical implications

Altruistic surrogacy among close relatives has been legal in Vietnam since the beginning of 2015. Following the revision of the Marriage and Family Law, there have been dozens of cases of surrogacy, and instances of successful pregnancy and childbirth have also been reported. Although surrogacy was completely prohibited in 2003, numerous local brokers offered commercial surrogacy services. Today, surrogacy is permitted under very limited conditions, and commercial surrogacy is prohibited. However, brokers continue to offer illegal commercial surrogacy services, and some even present its incidence may be increasing. In terms of women’s roles, Vietnamese society places the highest value on motherhood, and childless couples are stigmatized. Thus, the demand for surrogates is high in Vietnam, rendering it difficult for family members to meet the needs of all those seeking these services. This article considers the consequences and implications of the new surrogacy policy in Vietnam based on field research.

Land Use Restrictions, Misallocation in Agriculture, and Aggregate Productivity in Vietnam

This paper evaluates the effects of restricted land use rights on aggregate productivity using micro-level data within a quantitative model. In particular, I exploit the Rice Land Designation Policy in Vietnam, which forces farmers to produce rice on almost 45% of land plots. I use digitized versions of Vietnam’s Local Land Use Atlas and Global Agro-Ecological Zones database to construct a micro-spatial dataset that shapes the model features and allows me to compare the restricted against a counterfactual efficient allocation. The main findings suggest that eliminating all land use restrictions leads to an 8.03% increase in real GDP per capita. While misallocation in agriculture has been studied extensively, the paper highlights a novel source of misallocation also prevalent in other countries such as China, Myanmar, and Uzbekistan.

Side by Side: Alice and Staughton Lynd, the Ohio Years by Mark W. Weber and Stephen H. Paschen

Reviewed by: Side by Side: Alice and Staughton Lynd, the Ohio Years by Mark W. Weber and Stephen H. Paschen David Brown Mark W. Weber and Stephen H. Paschen, Side by Side: Alice and Staughton Lynd, the Ohio Years. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2014. 144 pp. $29.95+. This is a multifaceted work of history, biography and politics written by two scholars—Mark Weber, a retired dean of libraries at Kent State University and Stephen Paschen, a retired archivist at Kent State University Libraries—who have long admired the activism of Alice and Staughton Lynd. Their [End Page 53] book is an engaging complement to Carl Mirra's 2010 study, The Admirable Radical: Staughton Lynd and Cold War Dissent, 1945–1970, and picks up chronologically where Mirra's book ended, with the conclusion of the 1960s and the realization that Staughton, denied tenure at Yale and black-listed from a number of Chicago universities for his criticism of American foreign policy in Vietnam, would never find another teaching position in the academy. Looking at the fullness of the Lynds's life together, one might say that they were better off outside the Ivory Tower. As post 1960s colleges and universities became more conservative, the Lynds never backed away from their activism—for the rights of workers, prisoners, and the elderly. They remain today symbols of social justice and worthy of biographical treatment. In many respects, this is a book that traces the human impact of deindustrialization in Ohio's Mahoning Valley. After leaving Chicago in 1976, Alice and Staughton moved to Youngstown, Ohio to practice labor law. By this time the sixties had definitively ended. SDS and SNCC were gone, the Vietnam War was over and the Lynds found themselves at a crossroads. Staughton had taken a law degree at the University of Chicago in 1973 and Alice enrolled in a paralegal program at Roosevelt University in 1974. Together they sought to continue their engagement in participatory democracy and nonviolence through the legal profession. But this meant more than defending trade unions. In Chicago they had both grown skeptical of large union bureaucracies, questioning their interest in affecting meaningful and positive change for the rights of their members. This kind "business unionism," they insisted, promoted hierarchical top-down relationships that distanced powerful organizations from those they ostensibly served. In Youngstown, a strong union tradition was being overturned by the neoliberalism of the 1980s. Faced, as he thought, with a decision to either represent the unions or represent the workers, Staughton left his job at a Youngstown law firm in 1978 and he and Alice (having taken a law degree at the University of Pittsburg) began working at the Northeast Ohio Legal Services until they retired in the 1990s. Weber and Paschen offer within this narrative a useful history of Youngstown's economic struggles, legal fights over the same, and the impact of plant closings on workers that demonstrate their fluency with the recent history of the region—a history that, as residents and academics at neighboring Kent State University, they are in an ideal position to relate. [End Page 54] One of the Lynds' major campaigns was over the question of community rights to shuttered industrial property. They lobbied, petitioned, organized, and occupied buildings in an effort to produce a legal decision that would recognize worker owned mills. Unsurprisingly the American property rights tradition proved too strong, and the Lynds lost this legal fight. It demonstrated, however, the eagerness of workers in the region to challenge corporate power and their willingness to remain committed to another hallowed American tradition—grassroots social democracy. For the Lynds the fight for community rights continued and in more recent years they became involved in prison reform and the Occupy Movement. More broadly, their opposition to the Gulf Wars, US foreign policy in Central America, and Israeli occupation of the West Bank and ongoing settlement building has often taken their reform efforts out of the Ohio context. Among the real virtues of this book are the many interviews that flesh out the Lynds' lives and work in Ohio. Alice and Staughton participated in these discussions but so also did, to name but...