Meng Yu Ngov

This paper examines the impact of mobile broadband expansion on firm performance in Vietnam, leveraging the staggered rollout of 3G internet between 2009 and 2015 and panel data from the Vietnam Enterprise Census. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I find that access to 3G increases firm employment by 7.6% and reduces inventory holding costs by 10.4%, indicating improved operational efficiency. Despite rising employment, the total wage bill per employee declines by 10.6%, reflecting cost-cutting responses to heightened competition. As mobile broadband reduces information asymmetry and enhances market transparency, firms face downward pressure on prices and margins. Consistent with this mechanism, I document a 13.5% decline in average prices and a 9.0% reduction in firm markups. Broadband also facilitates global integration, increasing the likelihood of export participation by 14.6 percentage points. Overall, the results underscore the role of digital infrastructure in enhancing firm efficiency, competitiveness, and market access.

When countries subsidize the production and innovation of green goods, does it make it easier for others to join their value chains? We explore this question using Viet Nam’s solar panel industry as a case study with firm-to-firm transaction data to map its value chain. We find that Viet Nam imports solar parts and components at substantially lower prices from subsidizing countries— about 30% cheaper than from non-subsidizing countries and nearly 50% cheaper from China, where all key inputs are subsidized. We also find that Chinese FDI firms—accounting for around 75% of exports and 50% of jobs among all solar producers—export solar panels about 38% cheaper than other exporters in Viet Nam. Lastly, we document positive productivity spillovers from Chinese FDI firms to local suppliers of solar panel parts and components in Viet Nam.

This paper investigates the labor-market effects of Rules of Origin (RoO) liberalization in the context of the 2011 reform of the European Union’s Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme, which eased restrictive RoO for Cambodia’s apparel exports by allowing the use of imported fabric in preferential shipments. Using a novel RoO restrictiveness index combined with Cambodia’s Labor Force Survey microdata, I distinguish between extensive informality (employment in unregistered firms) and intensive informality (informal jobs within registered firms). The relaxation of RoO reduced extensive informality by enabling more firms to formalize and participate in export markets, but increased intensive informality as many newly created jobs lacked social-insurance coverage. Complementary firm-level evidence confirms export expansion and employment growth in apparel, while job quality lagged behind. Simplified RoO enhance market access and formalization, but do not automatically improve job quality without strong domestic labor institutions.

This study examines the impact of Indonesia’s Local Content Requirements (LCRs) on the development of its upstream automotive industry. Using firm-level data from the Indonesia Industrial Survey (2001–2012), plant–product data (2001–2008), and input–output tables, the analysis employs propensity-score matching combined with difference-in-differences to estimate treatment effects. LCRs increased output, value added, input use, and productivity, with stronger effects for smaller and less-productive firms, as well as those positioned further upstream in the supply chain. LCRs enhanced the export competitiveness of high-complexity spare parts while providing protection to less-competitive firms. These results highlight LCRs’ role in supporting upgrading and competitiveness, while raising questions about broader efficiency and consumer impacts.

Critical minerals are essential inputs for green technologies that underpin the transition to sustainable energy. Export restrictions on these minerals raise global prices by constraining supply, reducing material availability, and disrupting international markets and supply chains. Using an event-study approach, we quantify the trade effects of export restrictions on critical-mineral green products, drawing on the concept of product relationship stickiness. Covering restrictions imposed between 2007 and 2023 and combining data from the Global Trade Alert, ADB–WTO Trade in Critical Minerals (TiCM), and CEPII-BACI, we identify 242 green-transition products. On average, export restrictions reduce exported quantities by ~11.8%. For high-stickiness raw materials, trade declines by ~30%, indicating pronounced disruption to global supply chains.