2016 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Productivity gap and technology spillover
| Project/Area Number |
16H07279
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
倪 彬 早稲田大学, 国際学術院(アジア太平洋研究センター), 助手 (60779677)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
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| Keywords | technology spillover / productivity gap / firm-level data / Vietnam |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In the past studies,I have been devoted to investigating the spillover impact that foreign direct investment (FDI hereafter) might have on domestic firms’ performance in Vietnam. In the previous research, I have demonstrated that Asian investors are the most likely to induce positive vertical spillover and negative horizontal spillover, however, their average productivity is the lowest among all foreign investors, which is in contrast with the previous theoretical studies. Thus I would like to take advantage of the mirco-level data in Vietnam to empirical clarify the relationship.
During the last year, I have mainly focused on cleaning of Vietnamese firm-level data and econometric estimation. By far, I have come up with the following findings: After applying statistical methods such as stepwise chow test to divide Asian investors by different TFP cutoffs, we show that the relationship between the productivity gap and vertical spillover takes an inverted-U shape, i.e. Vietnamese suppliers can achieve the most TFP gains from the diffusion of the Asian investors with middle-level TFP. The empirical results are robust against several sensitivity checks, thus providing the evidence that not all the foreign investors with the most advanced technology can bring about the benefits to the local firms in Vietnam. Based on the above, I have made a draft and will try to make the improvements in this year.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The progress is almost on schedule. There are several points that I keep in mind when conducting the research:
(1) Always make plans on the time frame. For example, in between April to July, I should have finished literature review. Then I use the next two or three months to do data cleaning. By the end of 2016, I should have finished the initial estimation. I look back to my original plan from time to time and try to correct for the gap.
(2) I have to thank my colleagues for their support. Without their sincere and useful advice, I couldn't have kept up with the schedule. And the discussion with them always motivates me to move forward and overcome the difficulties.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
One change from the original plan is that I would like to add a theoretical model to enrich the verification. Based on the preliminary estimation results, I will actively participate in workshops and conferences, trying to get more comments and improve the research. By presenting the findings and exchanging ideas with officials in Vietnam, I hope to raise the policy-makers’ awareness of the problems behind the phenomenon.
By the end of the research period, I plan to have the draft proofread and submit the paper to academic journals such as Journal of International Economics or Journal of Development Economics.
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