Using the Small and Medium Enterprise Survey in Vietnam and three proxies of innovation, we study the impact of firm innovation on on-the-job training in the manufacturing sector from 2007 through 2015. To address potential measurement errors and omitted variable problems, we use the average level of innovation in the same sector in other districts as an instrument for firms’ innovations. We find ...

We define and measure firm product destination year specific export quality and investigate how quality competition from China affects Indonesian firm productivity in the domestic and export markets. Our results suggest that an increase in Chinese exported product quality by 10 percent will increase the productivity of Indonesian firms by 0.4-0.5 percent in Indonesia’s domestic market, and increase ...

The impacts of imports on the domestic labour market have been hotly debated recently. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effects of not only imports from China but also those under regional trade agreements (RTAs) on employment in Japan. As in previous studies in the literature, we found that the rise in import penetration from China significantly decreases employment in Japan. ...

Global trade is expected to suffer a significant contraction as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Did the relative importance of countries in the world trade network change as a result of the pandemic? The answer to this question is particularly important for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries because of their strong trade linkages with China, where the COVID-19 virus originated. ...

This study investigates the impacts of integration into global value chains (GVCs) on formal and informal employment in Viet Nam. Utilising the Viet Nam Household Living Standard Surveys and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Trade in Value Added database (in 2010, 2012, and 2014), we examine how GVCs’ engagement affects the share of formal employment (through a fixed effects ...

Since Doi Moi (Renovation) in 1986, economic integration has been an important pillar of Viet Nam’s reforms. Economic integration has gradually deepened, and even World Trade Organization accession in 2007 marked no end to Viet Nam’s economic integration process. Impact assessments of trade and investment liberalisation indicate that deepened economic integration has broadened economic opportunities, ...

The formation of global value chains (GVCs) has reshaped production processes across countries. This paper investigates the relationship between GVCs and firms’ employment by using panel data on Vietnamese small manufacturing firms for 2005–2011. The results suggest that increased foreign value added in exports results in higher wages, increased productivity, and a greater share of production workers ...

This study examines the impact of non-tariff measures (NTMs) on global value chain (GVC) participation and the underlying mechanisms. Our study employs a novel approach using an additional compliance requirement indicator as a relative proxy for NTMs to measure their impact on GVC participation. We conduct a cross-sectional analysis at the industry level, spanning 19 industrial sectors in 30 countries ...

Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBTs) in destination markets may affect firms’ performance. In this paper, we examine how meeting foreign standards affects exporting firms’ innovation, reflected in the product quality, production processes, skills, and technological acquisition. The analysis relies on official regulations on non-tariff measures released by ...

Countries export less to destination countries with greater regulatory burdens. We use finely disaggregated product-level bilateral trade value and quantity data for 98 countries, together with a new data set of detailed information on technical regulations, to answer the following question: if a country is facing a greater regulatory burden in a particular destination market, is that country more ...