Journal of International Economics and Management

19-45

Authors: Samwel Sanga Alananga, Felicican Mutasa

This study examines the finance-growth nexus among countries in the Southern African Development Community and East Africa Community regional blocs. We aim to see if small economies can rely on expansionary monetary policies to stimulate economic growth given the illusive nature of such policies. The panel error correction model is applied to analyze the aggregated data, which were obtained from the World Development Indicators and the Comité Européen d'Etudes des Polyphosphates. The results indicate that proximity to trading giants jeopardizes the freedom to use monetary expansionary policies among relatively small countries. If such policies are adopted, it will be a significant impact on countries located in regions where trading powers are evenly distributed.

62-90

Authors: Le Thi Ngoc Bich, Hoang Bao Tram, Doan Quang Hung, Fillipo Marchesani, Bui Quang Tuan

This study aims to unravel how different innovation strategies affect firms’ modes of integration into the global value chains. By applying the self-selection hypothesis and utilizing longitudinal data of firms in Vietnam on 27,664 observations from 2012 to 2018, we find that innovation strategies affect the probability and modes of integration into the global value chains. While firms that prioritize product innovation and research and development are more likely to export, those that focus on process improvement tend to sell more to foreign direct investment buyers. These relationships are influenced by the quality of the local business environment. The improved quality of the local business environment enhances the positive effects of these innovation strategies on firms’ integration into the GVCs. This enhancement effect is particularly important for small- and medium-sized firms. The findings suggest that to support firms in Vietnam to integrate into the GVCs, the quality of the local business environment must be improved and it could be done by enforcing public policies that are complementary to firms’ innovation policies.

110-128

Authors: Tran Thi Van Anh, Dao Hoang Tuan, Nguyen Thi Nhung

The study investigates the effect of spillovers regionally and worldwide on Vietnam’s stock market. The vector error correction model (VECM) is used to analyze the collected data from Bloomberg. Data include eight comparable stock market indices, namely DJI, NKY, SHCOMP, SET, MXSG, PCOMP, FBMKLCI, and JCI. The empirical results show that the Vietnamese stock market is significantly linked to that of the other countries. During the periods of dramatic market fluctuation, the cross-border linkage between the VN-Index and comparable indices is the largest. The impact of the stock markets of small nearby countries such as Singapore and Malaysia on the Vietnamese stock market are greater than the other large ones including the United States, Japan and China. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on the interdependence and interaction of stock markets. The common economic integration, especially in showing that effect found in other studies, is meaningful in explaining the observed phenomenon.