Employing data for the years 2006–2011, the research analyzes the relationship between Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) ranking and development of enterprises in certain Vietnamese provinces. The results show that the data do not demonstrate the relationship between the PCI ranking and indexes of development of enterprises. This implies that great caution should be taken when interpreting the PCI ranking of a province, especially in treating the PCI as a driving force for the provincial economic development.

The paper employs the VAR model to examine the impact of monetary policy on the economy through interest rate channel (IRC) and levels of transmission before and after the 2008 crisis. The results indicate that in the period before the financial crisis, IRC exists in accordance with macroeconomic theory; however, the crisis period, in which increases in SBV monetary policy rates lead to increased inflation, has proved the existence of the cost channel of monetary transmission in Vietnam.

Establishing loan loss provisions may affect bank’s profitability and capital adequacy ratio. The paper employs regression analysis to explore operations of loan loss provisions in Vietnamese commercial banks in 2008-2012 in its relationship with bank characteristics. The results show that loan loss provisions of Vietnamese commercial banks are positively related to size and proportion of bad debt and negatively related to financial risk ratio. The paper provides theoretical evidence of the opportunism in selection of accounting policy concerning loan risk management by Vietnamese bank managers.

The paper examines the relationship between employment and economic growth during the period 1991–2012 in Vietnam and obtains forecasts for employment from 2013 to 2020, using theories of production function for establishment of econometric models. The results show that the employment elasticities of economic growth are -0.49; 0.55 and 0.66 for agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors respectively and 1.71 for Vietnamese economy as a whole in the period. The results also indicate that an annual growth rate of 6% - 7% can help create from 55.322 to 56.243 million jobs by 2015 and from 61.739 – 64.519 million ones by 2020. Additionally, the research offers several important policy recommendations to promote economic growth and job creation in Vietnam in the next period.

Outsourcing of logistics services has become popular since the beginning of the 21st century. Along with increasingly great changes in supply of logistics services, exploring customers’ demand and core criteria affecting decisions to select logistics services suppliers becomes increasingly necessary. Employing the EFA and binary logistic regression, the research identifies eight core criteria affecting decisions to select service suppliers by HCMC-based exporters and importers: quick response to customers’ demand, updating service supplying fares, brand reputation of logistics services suppliers; exact billing; care of customers’ interests and needs; location of service suppliers; availability of e-commerce services and electronic billing; and reasonable pricing.

The paper aims at testing the theoretical model of brand equity and developing a measure for brand equity of Bình Thuận dragon fruit and relationship between components of brand equity. The research results based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) demonstrate relationships between the following components of the brand equity of Bình Thuận dragon fruit: Brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and brand loyalty. The results also show that these components do affect the overall brand equity.

Fluctuations in stock price index are always the focus of investors’ and listed companies’ interest, so the exploration of factors affecting this index is crucial. This paper examines the impacts of business confidence and consumer confidence on VN-Index. The results confirm positive impacts of business confidence and consumer confidence on the index, but they are not remarkably high. Thence, the study proposes solutions to the improvement in business confidence and consumer confidence to help the Vietnam’s stock market grow in a stable and sustainable manner.

The effect of government relative size on economic growth is a contentious issue. This paper is undertaken to test the relationship between government size and economic growth in Vietnam. The study is a panel data investigation, involving 60 provinces over the period 1997–2012. Various measures of government size are defined: provincial government expenditure as a share of gross provincial product (GPP), provincial government revenue as a share of GPP, real provincial government expenditure per capita, and real provincial government revenue per capita. Empirical estimates are employed by conducting Difference Generalized Method of Moments method proposed by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Pooled Mean-Group method by Pesaran, et al. (1999). These tests reveal: (i) provincial government expenditure (revenue) as a share of GPP has a significantly negative effect on economic growth; and (ii) the real government expenditure (revenue) per capita has a significantly positive effect on economic growth. It is also found that the long-run and short-run coefficients of government expenditure size are significant and negative, that the correction mechanism from the short run disequilibrium to the long run equilibrium is not convergent, and that government employment has a negative correlation with economic growth.

The paper shows that the Vietnam’s system of social security policies during its reforms increasingly supports risk prevention, mitigation and management, positively contributing to the implementation of targets for human development. This system, however, reveals many shortcomings, such as its limited coverage and low impact on beneficiaries. Since the system, in which all citizens are guaranteed to be engaged, should assure people’s fundamental needs and increase its scope of impact, greater accountability of involved parties is required. Additionally, on the basis of synchronous development of all components of the social safety net, it is vital that the policy model, organizations in operation and/or services and finance resources providers be diversified and that the development of social security policies be attached to economic and social development.