The authors assess impacts of rural road rehabilitation on market development at the commune level in rural Vietnam and examine the variance of those impacts and the geographic, community, and household factors that explains it. Double difference and matching methods are used to address sources of selection bias in identifying impacts. The results point to significant average impacts on the development of local markets. They also uncover evidence of considerable impact heterogeneity, with a tendency for poorer communes to have higher impacts due to lower levels of initial market development. Yet, poor areas are also saddled with other attributes that reduce those impacts.

Thanks to the high economic growth rate during the last 20 years, Vietnam is expected to join the middle-income country group by around 2010. The global financial crisis has severely impacted many countries, including Vietnam. The crisis together with the recent turbulence of macroeconomic development in the last two years has opened up several weakness of the economy, and begged the question whether Vietnam can continue her present course of economic development in the face of a changing world? This paper is an initial attempt to answer this question by (i) reviewing the economic development of Vietnam during the last 20 years, (ii) analyzing the impacts of the crisis on Vietnam and the policy responses by the government; and (iii) suggests some medium-term prospects and policy implications for the country.

Several countries are on their way towards a market-oriented economy but in conditions where most local companies have a dearth of management expertise. To meet the growing pressure of globalization and integration, many local enterprises are keen to apply foreign know-how and practices, especially human resource management (HRM), to enhance competitiveness. Likewise, foreign invested companies face the fundamental question of the transferability of HRM practices, whose success depends on country specifics, into local settings. This paper examines the possibility of applying four management practices (pay for performance, multi-source feedback, involvement and empowerment, self-managed work teams) in the context of Vietnam, with illustrative comparisons with China. It suggests varying degrees of transferability and potential hindering factors, along with practical suggestions for managers and businesses considering management transfers more generally and elsewhere. Importantly, our approach and findings are relevant and applicable to a range of different country managers and businesses, especially those which have been subject to less research and enquiry.