Research Activities
Research Projects 2024
The net effects of foreign investment on employment and demand for skills: Vietnam
Outline
We seek to understand the contribution of export-oriented, labor-intensive manufacturing in Vietnam to overall job growth and skills demand. Nearly all new export-oriented manufacturing jobs come via foreign direct investment (FDI). Do such investments support educational deepening, or compete with it? Studies in other countries find positive employment multipliers (the sum of direct and indirect employment effects for each FDI job created) but net effects on skills demand are not always rigorously quantified. Moreover, the labor market effects of investment shocks are best captured using data by commuting zones (CZs) rather than administrative units such as provinces or districts, whose borders may be unrelated to labor markets. The CZ approach is novel in Vietnam and should enable rigorous quantification of FDI-related net new job creation. Our findings will fill gaps in knowledge on the contribution of the "factory to the world” strategies to economic growth, poverty alleviation, and human capital formation.
Period
April 2024 - March 2026
Members
| Role | Member |
|---|---|
| [ Organizer ] | Coxhead, Ian (Professor ) |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Banh, Thi Hang(National University of Singapore Research Fellow) |
*Affiliations are as of April 2024.
Expected Outcome
- Paper Submission to Peer-Reviewed Journal