Asian Studies Commons^™

Female Ceos And Investment Efficiency In The Vietnamese Market, Jun Myung Song, Chune Young Chung

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

This paper proposes female CEOs’ overconfidence and risky behavior stem from gender stereotype threats. Using two subsamples from Vietnam—firms in the Northern and Southern regions—we empirically show that female CEOs in the North, where there is less gender stereotyping, tend to overinvest relative to male CEOs. However, in the South, they are indifferent. Additional analysis reinforces the main finding that female CEOs in the North tend to take more risks even when dealing with market volatility and uncertainty (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Such risky behaviors do not deteriorate firm value but, instead, possibly improve firm performance.

Female Ceos And Investment Efficiency In The Vietnamese Market, Jun Myung Song, Chune Young Chung

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

This paper proposes female CEOs’ overconfidence and risky behavior stem from gender stereotype threats. With two subsamples in Vietnam—firms in the Northern and Southern regions–we empirically show that female CEOs in the North, where there is less gender stereotype, tend to overinvest relative to male CEOs. However, in the South, they are indifferent. Additional analysis reinforces the main finding that female CEOs from the North tend to take more risks even when dealing with market volatility and uncertainty (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Such risky behaviors of female CEOs in the North do not deteriorate firm value but instead, possibly improve …

Teaching In The Right Context: Textbook Supply Program, Language, And Vocabulary Ability In Vietnam, Tomoki Fujii, Maki Nakajima, Sijia Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

An ethnic gap in education is prevalent around the world. This remains the case in Vietnam, a country that has achieved phenomenal economic growth and raised the educational attainment of the public. This paper examines the impact of language policy reorientation represented by the textbook supply program in Vietnam on the ethnic gap in children's learning measured by a vocabulary test. Applying difference-in-differences estimation to the Young Lives data between 2006 and 2015, we show that the program became more effective in narrowing the ethnic gap as the education policy became reoriented toward ethnic minority children. A causal mediation analysis …

Grabbing The Paycheck: A Glimpse Into The Modern Economic Livelihoods Of Xe Máy Grab Drivers In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Maddie Davis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Woven into the very fabric of urban life in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam is commuting via motorcycle (Vietnamese: xe máy). The versatility of xe máy can be witnessed in the surge of rush hour traffic, the shipment of a great variety and quantity of goods, and the crunch of people in order to get the whole family atop a single bike. Due to xe máy as the primary way much of the population gets around, Ho Chi Minh City’s transportation infrastructure and traffic patterns are highly conducive to this method of transit. Resulting from these favorable conditions, a multitude …

Us Trade Policy, China And The Wto (Foreword), Paolo Davide Farah

Book Chapters

In ‘U.S. Trade Policy, China and the WTO’, Nerina Boschiero addresses a key topic in contemporary international economic law and global governance. By focusing on a turning point in global politics and the shaping/framing of trade policy in the U.S.– the election of President Donald Trump sheds light on the tumultuous process of reshaping of global governance. The crisis of multilateralism has been discussed at length in academia and mainstream media. However, little attention has been paid to how the U.S. is reacting to the rise of China in the global order, in practical terms. In particular, focus …

Maritime Moves: The American Response To The South China Sea Conflict, Joshua Jachlewski

Senior Honors Theses

China is quickly becoming a world power and will soon reach parity with the United States. China has gotten far more aggressive in its expansion, which extends to the islands within the South China Sea. China claims most of this based on the Nine-Dash Line, in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As the current world superpower, the United States must respond to these claims given the geostrategic importance of the region. An analysis of the current Chinese and US positions, as well as those of the other littoral states with competing claims, allows …

The Roadmap To The Asean-Eu Fta In The Post-Pandemic Era, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) have enriched the multifaceted concept of interregionalism from legal and international relations perspectives. The article argues that the transformative ASEAN-EU frameworks have shaped the Third Interregionalism. Brussels' building-block approach envisions pathfinder agreements with individual ASEAN states as the basis for the ASEAN-EU FTA, which will help realize the EU's Indo-Paafic strategy and the ASEAN-EU Strategic Partnership. The designs of the EU's trade and investment agreements with Singapore and Vietnam are therefore critical. The article assesses core areas such as tariff liberalization and ASEAN cumulative rules of …

Teaching In The Right Context: Textbook Supply Program, Language, And Vocabulary Ability In Vietnam, Tomoki Fujii, Maki Nakajima, Sijia Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

While past two decades have witnessed a remarkable educational progress in Vietnam, ethnic minority children consistently lagged behind ethnic majority children in academic performance. The government of Vietnam has stepped up efforts to assist ethnic minority students in their learning by lowering the linguistic and cultural barriers they face. Among such efforts is the textbook supply program, and we examine its impact on the learning of children proxied by vocabulary test. We apply difference-in-differences estimation to four rounds of the Young Lives data between 2006 and 2015 in order to investigate how the textbook supply program narrowed the gap between …

Inequality In Ethnic Representation In Secondary-School Literature Textbooks And National Examination In Vietnam, Anh Nguyen

Honors Projects

This essay studies the dynamic between ethnic minorities and majority in the Vietnamese education system. By examining the appearance and representation of ethnic minorities in national literature curriculum, textbooks, and examinations, the analysis reflects the government's perspectives regarding the “appropriate” portrait of ethnic minorities' heritage and relationship with the majority. The study finds that Vietnamese education framework and content comply with the national construct of a Vietnamese identity across ethnicities. The state determines educational materials and selectively permits only aesthetic, politically benign, and Kinh-like narratives of ethnic minorities’ cultures, many written and/or chosen by Kinh authority rather than the ethnic …

Commentary: What Lies Ahead? Considering The Future Of A ‘New’ Vietnamese Higher Education, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this commentary, Ortiga discusses two main tensions in how the authors in this volume portray the future of Vietnamese higher education. The first tension is the issue of autonomy or how universities must redefine their purpose and role in Vietnamese society as the state loosens its monopoly over higher education. Meanwhile, the second tension is the issue of privatisation or whether for-profit corporations and private agencies should play an increasing role in providing higher education services in the country. In reflecting on the future, Ortiga compares the case of Vietnam to higher education systems in neighbouring countries like the …

Vietnamese Pre-Schoolers’ Tablet Use And Early Childhood Learning: An Ecological Investigation, Becky Pham, Sun Sun Lim

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

As Vietnam’s economic growth and consumer demands continue to accelerate, more Vietnamese families are now able to acquire portable touchscreen devices such as iPads. Previous research has shown that the use of touchscreen devices can benefit preschoolers’ learning, especially within school and home settings. However, little is known about the broader sociocultural environment within which such technology adoption by families with preschoolers takes place, especially in the Global South. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecology of human development, this research investigates the ecology of tablet use and early childhood learning by pre-schoolers in Vietnam through an ethnographic investigation of 42 mother-child dyads. …

Jawing Through Crises: Chinese And Vietnamese Media Strategies In The South China Sea, Frances Yaping Wang, Brantly Womack

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Winston Churchill once said, ‘it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.’ However, negotiations are particularly difficult when they are enmeshed in public opinion precommitments. The sharpest crisis between China and Vietnam in the last 30 years concerned the placement of a Chinese oil rig into contested waters in 2014. This study analyses the Chinese and Vietnamese propaganda efforts surrounding the crisis as examples of the instrumental use of propaganda in managing domestic public opinion on diplomatic crises. The article argues that despite very different approaches to public diplomacy during the crisis, both states were primarily concerned with avoiding escalation …

Has The Development Gap Between The Ethnic Minority And Majority Groups Narrowed In Vietnam?: Evidence From Household Surveys, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

Using household data for rural northern Vietnam between 1993 and 2014, we find that the ethnic minority group continued to lag behind the majority group in various development indicators despite the overall improvement in living standards. Our regression and decomposition analyses show that the structural differences between the two groups are an important cause of persistent development gap. However, the nature of structural differences changed over time and no single source of structural difference explains the persistent gap. We argue that more minority‐appropriate policies are needed to lift poor minority households out of poverty further and reduce the development gap.

Perceptions Of The Body Haunted: An Analysis Of Significant Pilot Study Findings On The Abuse And Harassment Of Women With Disabilities Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Pia C. Mingkwan

International Studies Honors Projects

This pilot study conducted with Disability Research and Capacity Development in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, found that women with disabilities (WWD) reported significant experiences with abuse and harassment. Analysis of these findings revealed that the abuse and harassment of WWD is directly connected to the complex roles that gender and disability hold within Vietnamese society. Vietnam is a patriarchal society and WWD experienced abuse and harassment due to their roles as women; their expressions of gender and sexuality in connection with disability; and their desire for participation in processes such as sex, intimacy, and childbearing. Additionally, disabled bodies in …

Vu Khoan [Vietnam, Deputy Prime Minister], Vu Khoan

Digital Narratives of Asia

Vu Khoan, former Deputy Prime Minister for Vietnam, shares with DNA how he joined the foreign services, and then took charge of economic reform, where every assignment was a challenge that caused him to grow. He led Vietnam from political isolation to normalizing her international relations, especially with ASEAN countries. Interview and transcript in English and Vietnamese.

Ownership And Identities Of The Largest Shareholders And Dividend Policy: Evidence From Vietnam, Trien Vinh Le, Trang Huyen Le

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates the relationship between the level of shareholdings and identities of the largest shareholders, and cash dividend policy. The study is conducted with a sample of 180 firms listed on Vietnam stock exchange markets from 2009 to 2013. The fixed effect model is employed to analyze the balanced panel data. The results show that the higher the level of holdings by the largest shareholders, the lower the dividend payout. Moreover, companies with the State and Foreign investors as the largest shareholders have higher dividend payout ratio than companies with local investors and managers as the largest shareholders. The …

Continuing Efforts To Alleviate "Orange Pain" An Internship With The Da Nang Association Of Victims Of Agent Orange/Dioxin, Loan Heilner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This year marked the 55th anniversary of Vietnam’s Agent Orange Disaster. Decades after the end of the war, Vietnamese people are still largely being affected by the remnants of the United States’ Agent Orange herbicide sprays. Dioxin chemical has now been confirmed detrimental to human and environmental well-being, but unfortunately it still remains in high concentrations in certain areas of Vietnam. Dioxin chemical is passed on through genetics to new generations, but one of the leading causes of dioxin-related health defects today are due to environmental residue. In Da Nang, Agent Orange was stored and loaded at the local airbase …

An Asian Perspective On Policy Instruments: Policy Styles, Governance Modes And Critical Capacity Challenges, Ishani Mukherjee, Michael Howlett

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Does Asia have a distinct policy style? If so, what does it look like, and why does it take the shape it does? This article argues that in the newly reinvigorated emphasis of policy studies on policy instruments and their design lies the basis of an analysis of a dominant policy style in the Asian region, with significant implications for understanding the roles played by specific kinds of policy capacities. There is a distinctly Asian policy style based on a specific pattern of policy capacities and governance modes. In this style, a failure to garner initial policy legitimacy in the …

Rinse, But No Need To Repeat, Srinivas K. Reddy

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Unilever promotes water sustainability through product innovation. By October 2007, it had become apparent that competition in the laundry products segment in Vietnam was heating up rapidly. Huyen Bui, the senior brand manager for Comfort at Unilever Vietnam, was contemplating how to stay ahead of long-time rival, Procter & Gamble (P&G), in terms of market share. In April 2007, Unilever launched Comfort One Rinse, a fabric conditioner designed to reduce water use in hand-washed laundry by 66 percent. Six months later, P&G responded by launching Downy One Rinse, a nearly identical product.

The Vietnam Report: National Landscape, Current Challenges And Opportunities For Growth, Institute For Societal Leadership, John W. Ellington

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

Although most of Southeast Asia is home to religions and cultures carrying significant Indic influence, Vietnam alone is the mainland’s only Sinicised culture. Chinese emperors directly ruled northern Vietnam for most of the period spanning 111 BCE to 938 CE. The next eight hundred years saw a series of independent Vietnamese kingdoms administered by Chinese-style mandarins gradually extend control over and supplant the Indic Champa civilisation to the south—even as French incursions began chipping away at Vietnamese territory as early as 1858.

Nguyen Khac Huynh [Vietnam, Diplomat], Nguyen Khac Huynh

Digital Narratives of Asia

Nguyen Khac Huynh was a key member of the 1968-1973 Paris Peace Talks on the Vietnam War. He talks to DNA about how Vietnam managed to negotiate a settlement that saw the US withdraw from South Vietnam, despite being a weaker power. Hear also the long-time diplomat, soldier and academic's thoughts on the qualities of a good leader.

China's Military Modernization, Japan's Normalization And Its Effects On The South China Sea Territorial Disputes, Zenel Garcia

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

China’s military modernization has allowed it to take a more assertive position on the territorial disputes it currently has with Japan and its Southeast Asian neighbors. The South China Sea (SCS) dispute is a clear example. Meanwhile, Japan is normalizing its military status to play a more proactive security role in the region. Japan’s normalization process has been greatly influenced by China’s growing military capabilities as it fears that China could pose a threat to its sea lanes of communications. Although Japan does not have territorial claims in the SCS, it regards the SCS as a strategically vital area. It …

What Kind Of Asian Are You?, Uyen T. Le

SURGE

You don’t know anything about me. You’ve never been to my country; you don’t know my native language; you may not even be able to locate Vietnam on a map.

And that’s ok. What matters isn’t that you already know about my country and my culture. What matters is your attitude toward learning about it. [excerpt]

Proportionality In Interpreting Constitutions: A Comparison Between Canada, The United Kingdom And Singapore And Its Implications For Vietnam, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Few rights that are guaranteed by constitutions and bills of rights are expressed to be absolute. In many jurisdictions, the legislature is permitted to impose restrictions on rights for specified reasons and under particular conditions. However, constitutional or bill of rights text often do not expressly indicate how the courts should determine that applicants’ rights have been legitimately restricted. To this end, courts in jurisdictions such as Canada and the United Kingdom have adopted the European doctrine of proportionality. Essentially, this requires them to balance opposing types of public interests – the interest sought to be protected by the rights …

From Subaltern To Free Worker: Exit, Voice, And Loyalty Among Indochina’S Subaltern Imperial Labor Camp Diaspora In Metropolitan France, 1939-1944, Tobias Frederik Rettig

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The twentieth century has seen its share of Vietnamese diasporas and migratory flows. In France alone, one counts six different Vietnamese diasporas, each unique in its composition, motivation, politics, and length of stay in France. As in the First World War, the Vietnamese Second World War diaspora was unique in that its migration was meant to be temporary (for the duration of the war only), organized by the French imperial nation-state that largely requisitioned rather than attracted labor, and in that the migrants were exclusively male. The French journalist Pierre Daum has called them forced laborers, whereas the French-Vietnamese scholar …

The Long-Term Impact Of War On Health And Wellbeing In Northern Vietnam: Some Glimpses From A Recent Survey, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Kim Korinek

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

War is considered one of the most intransigent obstacles to development; yet, the long-run effects of war on individual health have rarely been examined in the context of developing countries. Based on unique data recently collected as a pilot follow-up to the Vietnam Longitudinal Survey, this study examines health status of northern Vietnamese war cohorts (those who entered adulthood during the Vietnam War and now represent Vietnam’s older-adult population). To ascertain whether and how war impacts old-age physical and mental health, we compare multi-dimensional measures of health among war survivors, including civilians, combatants, noncombatants, and nonveterans involved in militia activities. …

Tradition And Change In Marriage Payments In Vietnam, 1963-2000, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, John Knodel

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study analyses data from the Vietnam Study of Family Change to document trends and determinants of marriage payments in Vietnam from 1963 to 2000. We investigate the extent to which structural and policy transformations influenced the practice of payments, and estimate how societal changes indirectly impacted payments via their effects on population characteristics. Results indicate that marriage payments surged following market reform, but also reveal nuanced trends during earlier years. While the socialist attempts to eradicate brideprice appear to have been successful in the North before economic renovation, they were unsuccessful in the South. Structural and policy change explained …

Special Issue: Revisiting And Reconstructing The Nghê Tinh Soviets, 1930-2011, Tobias Frederik Rettig

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The seven papers presented here constitute the first collective effort in a Western language to revisit the Nghe Tinh Soviets of 1930–31. The Nghe Tinh movement, its name a compound of two neighbouring provinces in the north-central part of the French protectorate of Annam, not only occupies a special place in the history of the early Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) but also became a site for animated debate on the causes of agrarian unrest that produced two of the most influential books in South East Asian Studies: James Scott’s Moral Economy of the Peasant (1976); and Samuel Popkin’s The Rational …

Urban-Biased Policies And The Increasing Rural-Urban Expenditure Gap In Vietnam In The 1990s, Eric Fesselmeyer, Kien T. Le

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

There was a significant and widening rural-urban gap during the economic boom in Vietnam in the 1990s. Using an econometric decomposition, we find that differences in individual characteristics such as education, ethnicity and age are the primary explanation for this widening gap, whereas differences in the returns to these characteristics are the primary explanation for the increase in the gap at higher percentiles. We then argue that government investment policies and the manipulation of price incentives were important factors behind the gap. In particular, we argue that government policies created some benefit to urban dwellers at the expense of rural …

Urban-Biased Policies And The Increasing Rural-Urban Expenditure Gap In Vietnam In The 1990s, Eric Fesselmeyer, Kien T. Le

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

There was a significant and widening rural-urban gap during the economic boom in Vietnam in the 1990s. Using an econometric decomposition, we find that differences in individual characteristics such as education, ethnicity and age are the primary explanation for this widening gap, whereas differences in the returns to these characteristics are the primary explanation for the increase in the gap at higher percentiles. We then argue that government investment policies and the manipulation of price incentives were important factors behind the gap. In particular, we argue that government policies created some benefit to urban dwellers at the expense of rural …