Trade Protection and Productivity Differentials between Multinationals and Local Firms in Vietnamese Manufacturing

摘要

This paper investigates the effects of trade protection and ownership on firm productivity in Vietnam between 2005 and 2010. In labour-intensive industries and industries with intermediate levels of trade protection, the impact of trade protection on firm productivity was negative and significant. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) had higher productivity than indigenous private firms (IPFs), with productivity usually being the highest in joint ventures (JVs). Wholly-owned foreign MNEs (WOs) also had significantly higher productivity than IPFs in 2005-7, but these productivity differentials appear to have become insignificant in 2008-10. In capital-intensive industries, JVs had the highest productivity, but were followed by WOs, then SOEs and IPFs in the earlier period. Effective protection levels did not have a significant independent effect on firm productivity in capital-intensive industries.