• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제7권11호
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• pp.303-314
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• 2020

This paper investigates the relationships between bank credit and trade credit with profit of 130 agricultural firms listed on Vietnam's stock exchanges during the period 2008-2014. Using the GMM approach, the paper reveals inverted-U shaped (∩) relationships between bank credit and trade credit with profit. Specifically, the optimal threshold of bank credit and trade credit to total assets of the firms are 0.4173 and 0.2425, respectively. The findings mean that if the ratio of bank credit to total assets exceeds the benchmark of 0.4173, firms should consider restructuring debts to get them back to the benchmark. To do so, firms should withdraw from those business fields that are not of their profession, in addition to liquiditizing unused assets to repay debts and not using short-term credit to invest in long-term projects. Firms may use trade credit wisely when other sources of finance are lacking. In concrete terms, firms can increase trade credit use if the ratio of trade credit to total assets is below 0.2425. Yet, if this ratio goes beyond this benchmark, firms should get back to this benchmark, e.g., keeping a suitable amount of inventory. The implications of this study is to boost firm growth in the proposed way.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제9권7호
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• pp.17-26
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• 2022

This paper analyzes the comparative advantages and development prospects of the China (Anhui) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Based on a SWOT analysis method, this study finds that the Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone has a set of comparative advantages, including location advantage, rich resources, industrial transformation and new industries, technological innovation capabilities, new patterns for development, and policy support. In recent years, by leveraging its key resources, Anhui Province has been committed to developing an open economy. Furthermore, its economic vitality has increased significantly under preferential policies such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Europe International Freight Shuttle, and the Yangtze River Economic Belt Development Plan. As a result, the total foreign trade has continued to grow. The findings of this study highlight that the comparative advantages are of great significance to the development of the Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone, which helped expand the scope and openness of the regional economy and foreign investment. However, to achieve the development objectives of the Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone as planned, these comparative advantages must be developed and converted into a set of sustainable competitive advantages for the regional economy. Therefore, a few development suggestions are put forward.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제9권7호
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• pp.41-52
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• 2022

This paper analyzes the advantages and opportunities of regional development prospects of the China (Anhui) Pilot Free Trade Zone. In addition, it provides suggestions for the future development of the Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone. The establishment of the Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone is a major platform for Anhui Province, China, to serve the nation's opening-up strategy to the world and an opportunity for the Anhui region to enhance the level of an open economy. The development plan points out that the Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone 1) takes institutional innovation as the core, 2) complies with the requirements of the innovation-driven development and promotion of the Yangtze River Delta regional integration development strategy, and 3) plays a vital node role in promoting the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, and 4) accelerates the construction of scientific and technological innovation sources, advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries. The findings of this study highlight three critical achievements as follows: 1) optimization and improvement of the business environment have progressed, 2) the conversion rate of scientific and technological innovation achievements has increased, and 3) advanced high-tech manufacturing and strategic emerging industries are clustered and developed.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권8호
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• pp.345-353
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• 2021

The impact of investment on economic growth has been studied by many authors around the world with different times and research methods. Therefore, there are conflicting opinions about the impact of investment on economic growth. To contribute empirical evidence, the objective of this study is to assess the impact of investment sources such as public investment, private investment, and foreign direct investment on economic growth in Vietnam in the short-run and long-run. The data used for the study is panel data from 63 Vietnamese provinces between 2000 and 2020. The inquiry method is PMG (Pool Mean Group) regression for economic growth (GDP) after testing the stationarity of the variables that meet the PMG regression condition as suggested by Pesaran et al. (1996) and Hamuda et al. (2013). The results show that: factors such as labor and trade openness have a negative impact on economic growth in the short term. In the long run, public investment has a negative effect on economic growth, while domestic private investment, foreign direct investment, trade openness, and labor have positive effects on economic growth. Labour contributes the most, followed by trade openness, foreign direct investment, and domestic private investment. Finally, the study provides policy implications for the Government of Vietnam.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.313-324
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• 2022

The Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) involves various bilateral trade agreements and regional agreements signed between China and other countries. This study examines the impact of Chinese OFDI in ASEAN-5 countries through ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand from 2000 to 2016. This study attempts to address three research objectives. The first is to examine the motives for China's investment in ASEAN-5. The second is to explore the different impacts of China's investment across countries. The third is to investigate whether the OFDI conducted by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will produce different impacts on the firm's efficiency score. Using the DEA approach, this study finds evidence that the overall Chinese OFDI is relatively efficient. We find that the estimated efficiency score of this OFDI has improved in pre- and post ACFTA where a higher overall efficiency score was reported when comparing pre- and post ACFTA signing for both SOEs and NSOEs. Finally, China's parent firms' efficiencies showed higher scores among NSOEs compared to SOEs after the signing of ACFTA for all ASEAN countries except Malaysia. We highlight that the country's institutional infrastructure, earlier investment presence, and diplomatic ties help in shaping an effective trade agreement.

• 무역학회지
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• 제45권5호
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• pp.1-22
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• 2020

This study explores the role of relationship banking for the exports of SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) in Korea. Using a sample of SMEs listed on the Korean stock markets between 2004 and 2018, I find that relationship banking has a positive impact on exporting behaviors of SMEs. This result indicates that relationship banking is suitable for SMEs to raise their funds in the export decision-making since the incentive for banks to obtain soft information enhances SMEs' access to external finance. In particular, through further analysis considering financial constraints, I find that the positive impact of relationship banking on exports is amplified for financially constrained SMEs. In addition, the positive impact on exports is also amplified for export starters. Finally, relationship banking provides benefits for SMEs' export decision-making regardless of the financial crisis. To sum up, relationship banking may be useful means of financing for Korean SMEs whose creditworthiness cannot be assessed only by hard information. As the role of finance in international trade has recently been highlighted, this study provides insightful evidence that relationship banking may enhance exports of SMEs as a source of trade finance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.171-180
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• 2021

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of credit rationing on the amount of trade credit used by farmers in Vietnam. This study employs a survey data collected through direct interviews with heads of 1,065 rice households randomly selected out of provinces and city in the Mekong River Delta (MRD). In each province or city, the village with the largest area of land devoted to rice production from the district with the largest area of land devoted to rice production was picked up for survey. In each village, 200 rice farmers were randomly chosen for interview. Based on a probit model and a semi-parametric propensity score matching (PSM) estimator while controlling socio-demographic traits of rice farmers, the estimated results show that non-credit rationed farmers use less trade credit to finance production compared to their credit rationed counterparts. Moreover, the amount of trade credit used by farmers decreases as the degree of credit rationing drops. This paper provides evidence of the substitutive relationship between bank credit and trade credit. It also implicitly suggests that banks can drive trade creditors out of the market if they manage to solve the problem of information asymmetry and transaction cost.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제7권12호
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• pp.73-84
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• 2020

The study aims to investigate the dual effects of corruption control on economic growth in relationship with the stock market and trade openness in developing countries. The study used difference S-GMM method on the dynamic panel data model in the period (2002-2017) with data collected from the World Bank. The study discovers the dominant impacts of corruption control in the relationship with the stock market on economic growth. At the same time, the study also confirms the overwhelming impact of corruption control in the relationship between trade openness and economic growth in the developing countries. In addition, the study shows that inefficient stock markets in developing countries will not promote economic growth. Meanwhile, the long-standing credit market has a positive impact on economic growth. With the strong development of stock market and trade openness in the period (2002-2017), control on corruption in developing countries does not get better in time with the increase in demand. The findings of this study suggest a number of solutions to strengthen corruption control, leading to the increased efficiency on the stock market and as well as encouraging the positive effects of trade openness to contribute to promoting economic growth in developing countries.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.45-52
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• 2021

The capital structure is one of the hot financial topics among researchers and scholars. Its importance comes from the fact that capital structure is closely related to companies' ability to meet different stakeholders' needs. A suitable capital structure will boost the business and create a competitive advantage in the context of fierce competition. Many companies choose an optimal debt level based on the trade-off between interest and debt costs. This study aimed to test the existence of trade-off theory in capital structure, the case of Vietnam's real estate companies, which are growing very fast recently. Instead of considering constant optimal leverage to test the trade-off model, we take advantage of the dynamic capital structure determined by growth opportunities, profitability, tax incentives, tangibility, liquidity, and firm size. The dynamic panel data regression was estimated by the system Generalized Method of Moment (Sys-GMM). The empirical evidence showed that real estate companies listed in the Vietnamese stock market might change their leverage toward a target capital structure determined by influential factors in a long-term perspective. In particular, the debt-to-asset ratio will change by approximately 14 percent, positively, in response to the difference between the current debt-to-asset ratio and the dynamic target debt-to-asset ratio.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.191-199
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• 2021

The study examines the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth through trade openness for the leading ASEAN countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). The study employs a panel data for the period of 25 years spanning from 1995 to 2015 for the six countries, yielding a balanced panel of 150 observations. Fixed effect model (FEM) and random effect model (REM) are used for the panel data, following the Hausman test performed for model selection. The trivariate Granger causality test is also used to check for possible relationship between the variables. The results show that REM is chosen based on the Hausman test result, suggesting that the trade openness has a positive association with growth whereas the financial development is positively, but insignificantly associated with growth. The reason for this is that the financial development and economic growth may be related to each other. The results are, then, further explored and confirmed by the causality test. That is, the financial development and the economic growth, through the trade openness, are found to have bidirectional positive relationships. This implies that there would be shortcomings when ignoring the presence of trade openness, which positively impacts the relationship between finance and growth.